This week we had End Polio Advocate Susanne Rea as our Guest Speaker! Susanne spoke to us about Polio and her personal experience with it at age 4.
She also informed us that because of the Worldwide health crisis of Covid-19, the Polio Workers wear PPE gear when they make their rounds vaccinating children.
In Pakistan some methods of transportation for the Polio Workers are to travel by camel or other animals.
There is a huge computer that is used to log in information about those that received the vaccine, refusals or if the children were not at home at the time of the visit.
From 2015 onwards, women in Karachi, Pakistan were introduced as Polio Workers. As in the past, the women used to mainly stay at home with their children.
In Africa, persons who have polio some of them are in wheelchairs, and they encourage children to take the vaccine so that they wouldn’t have the same fate as them.
We also learnt that the mothers/guardians have to give their consent for the children to receive the Polio vaccine. Susanne commended the work of the Rotarians in Pakistan which is still a developing country and still has many needs.
How Rotary International spends the donations received are: 39% getting the vaccines to children, 1% research, 24% raising awareness , 14% detecting disease, 3% experts, 19% on the vaccine itself
Susanne encouraged us to be Champions for End Polio! The minimum donation is $10.00
In Nepal, there are 219 Champions!
In closing, only when a country has zero cases of Polio for three years then it is considered Polio Free!
Today, only two countries have yet to be declared polio free which are Pakistan and Afghanistan
