ROTARY – The Polio Challenge
July
is a special month in the convivial world of Rotary International (RI),
undoubtedly the world’s largest and most influential humanitarian
organisation:
the Rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30 annually. For “Rotarians” (as
members of Rotary in thousands of Rotary clubs and districts across the globe
are called), July marks the automatic transition from one RI President,
District Governor or club president and set of officers to another. To end
each
year, RI organises an international convention in a designated city. The
first
RI Convention was held in Chicago in 1910 and
the 2008 Convention recently ended in the city of Los Angeles, California.
Remarkably, this latest gathering of service minded men and women
witnessed the
presence for the first time under one roof of four spearheading partners
in the
Global Polio Eradication Initiative: the World Health Organisation (WHO),
UNICEF, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
and The
Rotary Foundation (TRF) - the fundraising and grant making arm of Rotary
International.
Another
remarkable thing that took place at the 2008 Rotary International convention
was a resolutuion by Rotarians concerning the sum of US$100m bequeathed to
their
organisation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to buoy the global
onslaught against polio. With thunderous unanimity, the over 25,000
delegates affirmed
a resolution to launch Rotary’s US$100m Challenge – a three–year fundraising
commitment aimed at marching the colossal US$100m contributed to Rotary’s
polio
eradication war chest by Bill and Melinda with another hefty US$100m to be
raised by RI. What this means is that every dollar given to the Rotary
PolioPlus Initiative during the next three years will be dedicated to
matching
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dollar for dollar.
And
guess where the bulk of this hard currency is going? It is coming to Nigeria
because our country, unfortunately, is one of the remaing four countries
of the
world where polio has remained endemic. The other countries in that league
are India, Pakistan
and Afghanistan.
By a curious coincidence, the man who will pilot the Polio Challenge is soft
spoken Jonathan Majiyagbe, a Kano
based lawyer who made history in 2003 by becoming the first African to
serve as
International President of RI and who presently serves as Chair of Rotary
African Regional PolioPlus Committee and the Rotary International PolioPlus
Committee.
Rotary
which has become a global phenomenon today had the most humble beginnings. A
lonely lawyer named Paul Harris who lived in Chicago in the state of Illinois
invited three business associates – Silvester Schiele, Gustavus Loehr and
Hiram
Shorey – one evening in February 1905 to discuss his idea of a new club that
would renact the jocularity and trustworthiness of their childhood days which
was missing in the dog-eat-dog environment of the big city. From Chicago,
Rotary clubs spread to other cities of the US, Europe, Asia, Australia
and Africa. From friendship, service to the
community increasingly became the focus of Rotary. In 2005 Rotary
celebrated a
century of service. The Centennial Convention to mark 100 years of Rotary
was held
at the monumental McCormick Place Convention Centre in downtown Chicago in
June 2005. For
Rotarians it was a historic homecoming to the city where Rotary began. Today,
the hallmarks of Rotary clubs all over the world are high ethical standards,
fellowship among members, and commitment to service to the community without
counting cost or returns. With a global
membership exceeding 1.2m men and women who belong to over 32,000 clubs in
more
than 200 countries, Rotary boasts of a large pool of business and
professional
leaders in virtually every city where it exists who task themselves and their
friends to build goodwill and peace across frontiers.
The
story of Rotary and polio is a moving one. Poliomyelitis (polio) is an
infectious, crippling and often fatal disease that attacks children
especially
those under the age of five. Since 1972 when Dr. Robert Hingson of the Rotary
Club of Oakland, Pittsburgh gave a vocational talk on his invention called
the “peace
gun” which could be loaded with multiple doses of vaccine and used to
immunize
larger numbers of people faster than the traditional syringe method, the idea
of a massive attack on worrisome health syndromes has been of concern to
Rotary. Following a pilot vaccination programme in the Phillipines, Rotary
envisioned a polio–free world and challenged the rest of the world to pursue
that vision. The initial idea adopted by RI in 1982 was to immunize all of
the
world’s children against polio by the time of Rotary’s 100th anniversary.
This programme which was tagged ‘Polio 2005’ was later changed to ‘PolioPlus’
in recognition of Rotary’s support of a global initiative to combat
vaccine-preventable childhood diseases. At the 1988 RI Convention in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
the WHO proposed changing the goal from ‘control’ of polio to
‘eradication’ by
the year 2000. Indeed, it was Rotary’s vision that inspired the 1988
resolution
by the World Health Assembly which committed governments to the eradication
goal. The combined efforts of WHO, UNICEF, CDC, TRF and various governments reduced the reported incidence of polio by 99% from 350,000 in 1988 to 2000
cases in 2006.
The
biggest obstacles to eradicating polio include underfunding of the global
initiative and dubious political commitment from authorities in the remaining
polio affected countries. In Nigeria,
unfounded rumours that polio vaccines contained the AIDS virus and could
induce
strerility stultified the eradication effort in the north leading to
resurgence
that is yet to be brought under control. Still, Rotary is partnering with
WHO,
UNICEF, CDC and various governments of the world sustain the great global
offensive
against polio. Rotary alone has spent over US$700m to save the lives of
millions of children around the world who would have been sent to an early
grave
or irreversibly deformed. The effort of Rotary has galvanized governments
around the world to contribute up to US$4billion to the eradication
effort. Britain, for
instance, has contributed over $620m.
The
Global Polio Eradication Initiative rests on three strategies: mass
immunization, surveillance and follow up. Rotary is the largest private
sector
contributor to these initiatives. For decades, Rotary’s PolioPlus
programme has
been one of the driving forces of the National Immunization Days (NIDs).
Rotarians and Rotary Clubs are involved at every stage of NIDs by providing
funds for vaccines, promoting immunization campaigns, distributing vaccines,
serving as monitors and collaborating with local authorities to reach more
children.
Dr.
Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO who delivered the keynote address
at the
2008 Rotary Convention gave a damning report of wild polio virus type 1
outbreak ravaging Nigeria’s
northern region. She told the delegates that “of every ten children paralysed
by type 1 polio virus this year, eight are in Nigeria. In some parts of the
country, more than a quarter of the children have never been vaccinated”. It
would seem that while Rotary has brought polio to the brink of extinction,
Nigeria (where Rotary
has four of its 532 districts worldwide) leads the countries that incubate
and
spread the disease. The Rotary districts in Nigeria
are District 9110 (Lagos and Ogun States),
District 9120 (Northern Nigeria), District 9130 (Middle Belt and South West
Nigeria excluding Lagos
and Ogun states) and District 9140 (South East and South-South zones).
Rotary
International anchors it’s activities each year on a theme which is reviewed
every year. For 2008/2009 the theme is “Make Dreams Real”. Incidentally,
Rotary
is not only making dreams real but is also making history in Nigeria this
Rotary year with the emergence of Ogugua Elizabeth Nwankwu as the first
female
governor of a Rotary District in Nigeria. Her District 9140 covers the eleven
states of Nigeria's South East and South South geo-political zones.
Nwankwu, a
clinical pathologist, has served as a member of the Presidential PolioPlus
Summit Committee. Other 2008/2009 RI District Governors in Nigeria include
the amiable
chartered accountant Richard Giwa – Osagie who is serving in District 9110
and Prof. King Akpofure Nelson Esievo of
District 9120. Can they fulfil Rotary’s dream? Can they and Majiyagbe
hasten the battle
against polio which Rotary has taken as a challenge so that polio can, truly,
be kicked out of Nigeria?
That will be seen in the days to come.
By Uche Ohia
uchebush@yahoo.com;
0805 1090 050