End Polio Now
Posted by Ralph Montesanto
Today's meeting saw Ross Cruickshank and Thie Convery from the Dundas Rotary Club as guest speakers. End Polio Now was the topic. Ross talked about his youth back in the 50s when polio was a feared disease in Canada; a time when almost every classroom had one or two students crippled from the disease or missing because they were confined to an iron lung or were dead; a time when swimming pools were closed down in the heat of the summer so that the virus would not spread through the crowds of children.
Today's meeting saw Ross Cruickshank and Thie Convery from the Dundas Rotary Club as guest speakers. End Polio Now was the topic. Ross talked about his youth back in the 50s when polio was a feared disease in Canada; a time when almost every classroom had one or two students crippled from the disease or missing because they were confined to an iron lung or were dead; a time when swimming pools were closed down in the heat of the summer so that the virus would not spread through the crowds of children. He talked about how Rotary International started the first mass vaccinations to stop the disease that infected over 350 000 children a year throughout the world and how over the past twenty or so years those numbers had dropped to just a 1000 a year in four areas - India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And he talked about the power of Rotary and how even warring people in Pakistan and Afghanistan would have a 24 hour truce so that 300 000 of their children could be vaccinated. Of course, all this comes down to money and with the help of the $450 million from the Gates Foundation and the $200 million pledged by The Rotary Foundation, the "last inch" will be achieved. And then he introduced Rotarian Thie Convery who is helping to raise $52 000 as her club's contribution as well as another $150 000 across Canada.