Rotary's achievements with the eradication of polio are well documented, but also very, very impressive.
It is good to remember that this quest was undertaken to save lives and to save people from disfigurement and a life of disability that the mammoth task was undertaken in the first place.
Paul Kasango reminded the club of this humanitarian side to the campaign to End Polio Now at the meeting this week when he spoke about being married to someone who had contracted polio as a child and still lives in the shadow of the virus.
"When I fell in love with Susan, I didn't know what I was signing up for," he said.
Polio for the individual is life-long, 24 hours a day, always there. The leg is cold (Susan suffered a paralysed leg after contracting polio as a child), it doesn't have blood flow," he said.
"Mobility is a challenge for life and polio victims often suffer from fatigue from all the effort."
Susan is a strong person who fights for her space all the time, Paul said, and emphasised that disability doesn't mean inability.
It was hard on her because when they were younger, their children didn't want her to get out of the car when dropping them off at school because they didn't want their school friends asking: "What happened to your mother?"
"I loved her so dearly I became oblivious to the impact society had on her."
"The lockdowns brought its own challenges and my marriage didn't survive, but I will always love her."
Paul shared the speaking duties with our own Lucille Blumberg and PDG Stella Anyangwe, wearing the hat of End Polio Now Coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa, where she acts as a sort of super salesperson to elicit donation to the Rotary End Polio Now campaign. Stella covers 7 districts in 15 countries.
There was another super salesman present in the form of PDG Eric Kimani, an old friend of the club from Kenya, who is visiting South Africa to promote the Rotary Foundation, which, he revealed, now has reserves of $2.025 billion but needs constant topping up for the fight against polio, but also for doing good in the world through thousands of grants to clubs for projects all over the world.
PDG Stella told the club that PolioPlus has been Rotary's flagship project since 1985. It all started after an immunisation drive in the Philippines in 1979 had a very positive outcome. In 1985 Rotary launched an appeal for $120 million to immunise all children. In 1987 Rotary raised $247 million and in the same year the World Health Organisation created the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined the fight in 2007, pledging $2 for every $1 that Rotary raised.
In 1988 polio was endemic in 125 countries, with 1000 cases a day leading to 350000 paralytic cases a year. This year the Wild Poliovirus 1 is only found in parts of two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Rotary has contributed more than $2.3 billion to the eradication of polio. Over 3 billion children have been immunised. Of late there has been a resurgence of wild poliovirus cases in countries otherwise considered WPV free. This is largely attributed to the disruption of immunisation programmes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The aim now is to completely eradicate polio by 2026. To do this, a further $4.8 billion in funding is required. To achieve this goal, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $1.2 billion and Rotary $50 million per year, which will be matched with $100 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There is still a shortfall of some $2.2 billion.
PDG Stella said 17 820 of the 33 000 Rotary clubs worldwide (or any of these clubs' members) did not contribute to PolioPlus in 2020-2021, unlike New Dawn, which contributes $1000 every year.
Lucille Blumberg told the club that genetic fingerprinting on how long the latest outbreak of viruses have been around, is possible. There was even a recent case of a wild poliovirus in waste water in Gaborone, Botswana.
Countries like Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe will be targeted for a major immunisation drive to prevent the virus spreading.
She said surveillance has improved after the Covid pandemic.
"Approaching the last mile (for the complete eradication of polio) requires a lot of effort, a lot of money and a lot of focus," she said.
Dates to Remember: Next week the meeting will be in the spectacular garden of the Nagy home in Craighall Park, as in the invitation above. We're celebrating Julian's 70th birthday and it's a great opportunity for fellowship and wine. Remember also to bring along a plate of eats.
A Thought for the Week: Where there is no wine, there is no love. - Euripides (c. 480 - c. 406 BC)
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