The Rotary Club of Banbury, with the support of Banbury Town Council, will once again be illuminating the Town Hall in purple to highlight and promote World Polio Day.
Since the World Polio Day campaign began in 1979, it has played a pivotal role in wiping out the infectious disease in all but two of the 195 countries worldwide.
Rotary club chairman Charles Hughes said: “ Why purple? It’s because purple is the colour of the dye that is used in developing countries to mark the little fingers of those who have been vaccinated. It has been adopted as the colour of the ongoing initiative to wipe out polio around the world and to make sure the disease doesn’t return.”
Rotary’s involvement to make Polio only the second disease to be eradicated from the world, dates back to 1979 when Rotary funded a Polio immunisation programme of 6 million children in the Philippines.
In 1985 Rotary International committed to lead a worldwide campaign to eradicate the disease. At this time, Polio was endemic in 125 countries and over 1,000 children were paralysed worldwide every day!
Since 1988 cases have reduced by 99.9%.
Today polio is only present in Pakistan and Afghanistan, however until we end polio forever, every child is at risk.
For every £ donated to the Rotary campaign, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donate £2!!
If you would like to donate to this cause or to know more about Rotary’s work both locally and internationally, please visit: banburyrotaryclub.org.uk
