Earlier thi
s year, I had the opportunity to participate in a National Immunization Day for Polio in India. As a Rotarian, I know the battle against polio has been a long one, but it is one we will win. I’m proud to say that since 1983, when Rotary chose the inoculation of polio as it’s most important project, Rotary has raised $3 Billion for the effort and countless Rotarians have participated in sharing the vaccine.
Rotary began on its own by immunizing the children in two countries ~ Mexico and the Philippines ~ where polio was endemic. Later the World Health Organization and the American Centers for Disease Control joined the effort. National governments have supported the program. Most recently, the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation has matched the $3 billion raised by Rotarians. It takes a global village to carry off such an ambitious project.
Today polio is active in only three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. In the next few years we hope to make those countries polio free, too. In the meantime, inoculation in India must continue due to travel in and from those countries.
It is taking a global village to stop polio, but that village is composed of many individuals. My trip to India, where I saw first hand the ravages of poverty and disease, was a life-changing experience, because I realized that I, one person, could make a difference. One person can change the world.
On the National Immunization Day, February 22, 2015, 170 million children were vaccinated in India. That is a lot of children and it surely took a global village, but that huge number is made up of lots of individuals distributing those precious drops of vaccine. My team of four Rotarians immunized 199 children that day.
[Rev. Anne Benefield is the Pastor of the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Potomac.]
