Country: Nigeria
Message on British Houses of Parliament to celebrate 103 years of Rotary
Rich Hendry, courtesy of Rotary International
A giant Rotary wheel – the organization’s logo – and the words “End Polio Now” were beamed onto the side of the House of Commons to the left of Big Ben on Rotary International’s 103rd Birthday on Saturday, 23rd February – to start a challenge to raise US$ 100 million to help finally eradicate polio from the world.
Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985, inspiring the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership which has cut the number of polio cases by 99 per cent since then. The disease is now only endemic in four countries: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave Rotary a US$ 100 million challenge grant, which Rotary will match over the next three years.
The BBC aired images of the display, along with interviews with DG Colin Mathews and Gautam Lewis, a 30-year-old polio-survivor who immunized children on behalf of Rotary in his birthplace of India in November 2007. More
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photo:Christine McNab
Independent polio campaign monitoring is carried out to assess the quality and impact of supplementary immunization activities. It is critical to guiding any necessary mid-course corrections if gaps or problems are found.
The basic elements of monitoring include recording: the number and source of independent monitors, the number of children monitored, the percentage of children whose fingers are marked to prove they were vaccinated (both in house-to-house monitoring and out-of-house) and the proportion of districts monitored.
Real-time, independent monitoring data answers the question, “How many children did we reach with vaccine?” It allows rapid changes to be made to cover missing children and stop polio transmission more quickly.
The results of the independent monitoring are made available internationally within 15 days of each immunization round.
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