A
Rotary Club of Rotorua, NZ, cycling team has completed a gruelling ride to
raise $2000 to help the worldwide campaign to eradicate polio.
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| Six Kwik Kiwis riding 210 kilometres only had one puncture. Josh Pederson fixing Janine Speedy’s puncture |
The
Kwik Kiwis team consisted of Russell Dale, his daughters Jodi and Anna Dale,
son-in-law Josh Pederson, and friends David Russell and Janine Speedy.
The
team finished Australia’s largest cycling event in nine hours, and team members
and sponsors raised the $2000 contribution that, with 2:1 matching funding from
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is enough to vaccinate 10,000 children
in the last few countries where polio still exists.
Rotary
around the world began a campaign, called Polio Plus, in 1985 to try and
eradicate the disease. Rotarians have raised more than $300 million since then
and have also joined vaccination teams to fight the disease. The World Health
Organisation, UNICEF, Centres for Disease Control, many countries and private funders
such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have joined the campaign as
partners.
Polio
cases have been reduced by 99 per cent and total eradication now depends on
eliminating the disease from the last three countries where it is endemic -
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria - where there have been 182 new cases in
2014, up until 24 September. A further 19 cases in seven countries have been
caused by “imported” virus strains from the endemic areas.
“From
an estimated 387,000 polio cases in 1985 when Polio Plus began, the
world is now so close to being polio-free,” Russell said. “The Kwik Kiwis’
contribution and donations from many others will help to eliminate the last one
per cent of cases and ensure no child anywhere will be disabled by this crippling
disease.”
World
Polio Day information: www.endpolio.org
