Why do we "make a fuss" about Polio every year? If it's not a problem in the US, why do we care?
Test your knowledge about Polio - here's a little quiz: (answers in the "read more") And read on for a personal story...
1. How many countries were affected by polio when Rotary began our End Polio Initiative? What year was that?
2. In how many countries is polio still endemic now?
3. What does the "plus" in Polio Plus stand for?
4. Why is donating through Rotary especially effective?
5. What would the impact be if we "just stopped"?
"Little things are big things" My Story - Margaret LaBarge
The sneakers I'm wearing in this photo came from a World Polio Day fundraiser I learned about through RFE!
Many of you have met me over the years, or talked to me about your computer questions, but I would guess that I haven't talked to as many of you about my "why" for joining Rotary. My mother grew up knowing from a very young age that she wanted to be a nurse. She was so certain that nothing could dissuade her. And she made sure to get the best available training, going on to do internships at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and then in Washington DC with National Institute of Health.
During that latter period, while working on her Masters Degree, she worked directly with Dr. Sabin in clinical testing and early distribution of the oral polio vaccine. I remember as a child her telling me about giving out the sugar cubes to rows and rows of children and making sure they knew they had to come back to get the second one. She was young at the time and had the sense that she was doing something important but I don't think it sunk in just how incredibly life-changing that work was until much later. You see, so many friends of hers growing up had been affected by polio, including her best friend, also a nurse, who spent her life confined to a wheelchair, lucky to be alive.
Fast-forward to me graduating from college. I lived abroad in Cyprus for a time and worked there with an international nonprofit involved in blood safety work, and spent time conducting an international epidemiology study. I began to understand the importance of vaccination, of maintaining clean water and sanitary medical practices, and the difference that small systematic actions can make when taken over a long period of time and a wide geographic area. When I returned to the US, I began to donate to medical charities wanting to make a difference. And I started to ask a lot of questions.
Then I found Rotary. Learning about the polio eradication efforts and realizing that I could be a part of bringing to completion something that my mother had been part of beginning matters very very much to me and I have been making monthly donations to the PolioPlus fund. When she died last November, I was comforted by the many friends who donated to the fund in her name.
I would love to see this year ahead be the one when we finally eradicate polio once and for all.
Will you make a donation? Here's the link (make sure you choose PolioPlus)
Quiz answers:
- The Global Polio Eradication Initiative in collaboration with the World Health Organization officially launched in 1988, and at that time there were approximately 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. (Before that, in 1979 an initial Rotary project immunized 6 million children in the Phillippines, followed by a private sector project raising over $120 million in 1985.)
- Polio is now endemic in just two small areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and local teams are working hard to reach the children in those areas to deliver vaccine.
- The plus relates to our larger effort of preventing disease and protecting maternal and child health. Often in addition to providing the polio vaccine, a little extra assistance is given to help families maintain their general health so they have the opportunity to truly thrive.
- All donations made through Rotary that are targeted to the PolioPlus fund are 2:1 matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - TRIPLING your impact. In addition, with our decades of experience and infrastructure building, as well as Rotary's reputation for peace and impartiality, Rotary teams have the ability to enter areas that other agencies are prohibited from reaching, which increases effectiveness particularly in war zones, such as the recent response to a polio outbreak in Gaza.
- There is no cure for polio. It can only be prevented through vaccination. If we were to give up on the fight against polio now, within 10 years over 200,000 children could die from polio.