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End Polio powers ahead – Feb 2020

The proceeds of many of Banbury Rotary fund-raising events includes a contribution towards the phenomenally successful End Polio Now campaign.

Only Afghanistan and Pakistan still continue to report cases of wild poliovirus, the remaining challenges to global eradication – amongst which the difficulty reaching children amid insecurity and conflict and weak health systems – have proven to be the most difficult.

In a final push to eradicate the disease for everyone and forever,  a delegation of Rotary International leaders from around the world traveled to Pakistan this week to meet with government leaders including Prime Minister Imran Khan, Minister of Health Dr. Zafar Mirza, Army Chief of Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Dr. Rana Safdar, head of Pakistan’s Polio National Emergency Operations Centre.

Our efforts are further buoyed by the news, on 22 January, that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would extend their long-term fundraising partnership, which generates up to $150 million annually for polio eradication. Under the agreement, Rotary commits to raising $50 million a year over the next three years, and each dollar will be matched with an additional two dollars by the Gates Foundation.
This expanded agreement will yield up to $450 million to hopefully complete the process of polio eradication from planet Earth.