Greek Rotarian Volunteers Travel to India to Help Immunize Millions of Children Against Polio

ATHENS, Greece - Part of Rotary’s Global Effort to End Polio Worldwide

Rotary club members (Rotary District 2470) from Athens and the island of
Syros traveled to India, where they immunized children against polio — a
disease that still paralyzes and sometimes kills children in parts of Africa,
Asia and the Middle East. The 22-member team was in India from February 10 -
March 3.

These volunteers are members of Rotary, a worldwide humanitarian service
organization that has polio eradication as its main philanthropic goal. The
Rotary members will join other volunteers and health workers to administer
drops of oral polio vaccine during India’s sub-national campaign that will
target millions of children under age five.

The Rotary group worked with teams of volunteers to administer the drops
of oral polio vaccine to every child under the age of five. In remote
villages in the area of Moradabad, the volunteers walked house-to-house to
ensure that every child is reached.

Tremendous progress has been made in India, where most polio cases have
been concentrated in two key states. Health officials agree that implementing
repeated, large-scale immunization efforts are key in stopping the
transmission of the disease.

A highly infectious disease, polio can cause paralysis and sometimes
death. As there is no cure, the best protection is prevention. For as little
as US .60 cents worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this
crippling disease for life.

Rotary’s commitment to end polio represents the largest private-sector
support of a global health initiative ever. Since 1985, Rotary has
contributed more than US$800 million toward polio eradication. Rotary is
currently working to raise an additional US$200 million toward a US$355
challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555
million will fund polio eradication activities in the remaining endemic and
high-risk countries.

Besides raising and contributing funds, over one million men and women of
Rotary have volunteered their time and personal resources to help immunize
more than 2 billion children in 122 countries.

For photos of the Greek Rotarian trip to India, visit:
www.thenewsmarket.com/rotaryinternational. For further information visit:
rotary.org or polioeradication.org.

Source: Rotary International

Catherine Kotsali-Papadimitriou, Greek Rotarian Team Leader, +30-210-8030366, Mobile: +30-6944-411570, gekp at tee.gr, or Kiki Melonides, Rotary Media Relations, +1-847-866-3134, kiki.melonides at rotary.org, both of Rotary International