Rotary Club Boksburg dive into the reality of polio
October 24 marked World Polio Day, a global day to raise awareness and resources in support of the polio eradication effort.
Former district governor Greg Stathacopoulos of Rotary D9400 dived into the more serious and informative topic of polio during the recent Rotary Club Boksburg’s PolioPlus evening.
The eye-opening session took place at the Boksburg Rugby Club, where rotarians and their friends from Rotary clubs of Boksburg, Benoni Van Ryn, Johannesburg South 101, E-Club of Southern Africa D9400 and Edenvale graced the event.
Rotary International runs a campaign called PolioPlus, which is aimed at eradicating polio. For more than 30 years, Rotary International has raised $1.8-billion (about R26-b) and has immunised more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries.
Stathacopoulos gave an overview of what polio is.
According to him, polio is an intestinal virus which mostly spreads from person to person in contact, especially where hygiene is poor.
“It causes irreversible paralysis and sometimes death, and it affects mainly children under the age of five. In 1979, when there was a polio epidemic in the Philippines, Rotary got together with the leaders in that country, and that resulted in bringing out a three ‘H Grant’ approach, which stands for health, hunger and humanity.”
“During that period, six million children were treated for polio.
“In 1985, Rotary proposed that the initiative would be taken up by Rotary International to eliminate polio from the face of the earth. Smallpox was totally eradicated, so we believed this would be the case with polio as well.
“In 1988, a partnership started with the World Health Organisation and the initiative was the global eradication of polio. In 1994, the USA was cleared from polio and the work continued in countries like China and India.
“In 2000, 550 million polio vaccines were distributed and many children were saved. In 2004, Africa had a National Immunisation Day and there was collaboration between leaders and countries throughout Africa.
“India was polio free in 2014, and, now in September, we heard that Africa has been declared polio free,” he said.
At the end of his presentation Stathacopoulos sold polio pins to fellow Rotarians.
Proceeds will go to Rotary International to continue the fight against polio.
Meanwhile, on that evening, Gold Presidential Citation certificates where awarded to deserving past and present club presidents.
A Rotary Club qualifies for a Presidential Citation certificate if, under the leadership of its president, it meets the goals set by the Rotary International president for that particular year.
Each club may elect its goals within certain set limits.
During the year, the president is encouraged and guided by the club’s assistant governor.
Receiving the gold awards were Rotary Club’s Boksburg (under the leadership of president Derek Fox), Benoni Van Ryn (under the leadership of president Robin Bath), E-Club of Southern Africa D9400 (under the leadership of president and past district governor Shirley Downie), while Johannesburg South 101’s president Linda Dent proudly received their citation.
Edenvale (under the leadership of president Margie Evans) earned their citation with distinction.
Past district governor Charles Deiner was acknowledged when he received a congratulatory certificate from the Rotary Foundation on behalf of D9400.
This was for the district’s achievement during his year of office, in recording the third-highest place in Zone 22 for most Bequest Society commitments.
