POLIO ERADICATION – PURPLE - 4 - POLIO

For more than 30 years, Rotary International has been committed to fighting to eradicate polio across the world. Rotary have worked with the WHO, lobbied governments, and NGOs, making sure the programme is fully supported and doesn't lose its impetus.

In the UK and elsewhere, Rotarians have raised millions of pounds to fund vaccination programmes. Every pound raised is generously matched on a 2 for 1 basis by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Additionally hundreds of Rotarians from the UK each year take part in national immunisation days in India and elsewhere.

A measure of the success of the campaign, so far, is the fact that the whole of Africa was declared polio free in 2014 and there are only two countries left in which the disease is still endemic. A minor setback occurred in 2016 when 2 cases of polio were reported in Nigeria helps to emphasise the importance of continuing the campaign.

In the UK, Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (Rotary GBI) has launched the PURPLE 4 POLIO Campaign. This is backed by singer songwriter Donovan, who contracted the disease at a young age, and TV presenter Konnie Huq, who travelled to India to take part in administering immunisations against the disease in 2009, to encourage everyone to join together in the final push to eradicate Polio worldwide.

Malvern Rotary Club is helping by supporting the PURPLE 4 POLIO campaign. Throughout the year the Club will be holding events in Malvern to raise funds to help to achieve the aim of the final eradication of the disease. A major event is its annual Pancake Day Race on 21st February 2017 in Priory Park. The Club will also be teaming up with the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom community groups to transform and brighten up public spaces by planting purple crocus corms across the Malvern and District. The colour Purple has been chosen as it represents the colour of the dye which is place on the finger of a child on mass immunisations days, when literally millions of children in entire countries are given protection from the disease.

The President of Malvern Rotary Club, Barry Jones has commented “As a club we have worked tirelessly over the last thirty years with Rotary International to ensure the polio is eradicated for good, and with fewer cases being reported we believe we can end this deadly disease forever.”

The campaign ties in with the 100th anniversary of The Rotary Foundation, Rotary's own and only charity which has played a key role not only in making polio eradication close to reality, but has supported thousands of other humanitarian projects both locally in Great Britain and Ireland and Internationally.

For press enquiries contact M Barraclough 01886832837 Email m.barraclough32@btinternet.com

For more information on Rotary GBI visit www.rotarygbi.org and see Purple 4 Polio

For more information on Britain in Bloom visit www.rhs.org.uk/communities