Dear Club Presidents, Secretaries and Rotarians
Please use this as appropriate. (Remove this covering note and) forward to all your friends and colleagues. Don’t forget to fill in the blanks. If you wish to edit, please do so.
More END POLIO NOW releases will follow in the next few weeks.
All members of RC Johor Bahru are doing this, we have set a target number of PHFs to raise for the US$200 Million Challenge. So can you!
Best regards
PP Leong Chee Woh
Member (PolioPlus), Club Rotary Foundation Committee
Rotary Club of Johor Bahru
Dear Friends
As you may know, I have been a member of the Rotary Club of __________ , part of the worldwide association of Rotary clubs (http://www.rotary.org) since _____ . Rotary’s strategic mission is to provide service to others, promote high ethical standards, advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through its fellowship of business, professional and community leaders.
One of Rotary’s long-running objectives is to End Polio Worldwide.
Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children. Since 1985 Rotary and its partners have spearheaded the global effort to eradicate this tenacious disease. The number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent, preventing five million instances of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually. In 2008, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide.
The polio cases represented by that final 1 percent will be the most difficult and expensive to prevent for a variety of reasons. Presently, there are only 4 countries in the world which are polio-endemic – India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. There are also other countries with imported cases of the disease, principally in Africa.
But we are almost there, we are on the last laps. After over 25 years of hard work, we are on the brink. Soon this dreaded disease will be gone forever. Rotary and its partners have raised over US$3 billion in funding. Rotarians all over the world have volunteered many millions of man-hours. But more needs to be done.
Like running a long-distance race, the last laps are the most difficult but with added purpose and renewed energy, we can get there. Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge is intended to get us there. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed US$355 million in matched challenge grants to Rotary, making a total of US$555 million in new, additional funding.
Dear Friends, soon history will be made. Polio will disappear from the face of the Earth. We can be a part of this history.
Here’s what Rotarians will do.
Rotarians in Districts 3300 and 3310 (Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) are participating in the Walk To End Polio. There will be a team of Rotarians and a group of our junior counterparts, the Rotaractors, from the National University of Singapore – a total of about 19 participants who will walk from KL to Singapore over a period of 11 days from 20th to 30th December, covering a total distance of 394 kilometres. Many other Rotarians and friends are walking shorter distances. Our sole purpose is to motivate others to contribute to the US$200 Million Challenge.
Now, here’s what you can do.
Please give a little of your time in the next several weeks to read and view the information, articles, photos and videos about the global effort to eradicate polio that I will email to you. During this time I sincerely hope you will be moved to make a contribution. Even better still, forward these to your friends and colleagues. Perhaps they too, would like to contribute to a most worthy cause.
Thanks very much and best regards
Rtn __________
Rotary Club of ____________
Rotary International District 3310
