New and old Polio Goals for the New Rotary Year - Just $10 from every Rotarian!

Article by PDG Bob Aitken, Rotary End Polio Now Coordinator

Polio fundraising remains the vital challenge in the new Rotary year.

As we draw closer to that elusive goal of Polio eradication, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative cannot be halted or even hampered by lack of funds.

Rotary requires US$50 million per year to gain full benefit from the Gates Foundation matching grant of US$100 million and fund the campaign for the year. We will not know for several weeks if that goal was reached in 2020/21. In the closing weeks of June, donations were pouring in and, at the time of writing, Rotary’s ‘number crunchers’ were still sifting through hundreds of thousands of dollars of last minute gifts.

So, let’s be blunt …

Rotarians in Zone 8 (New Zealand, our near island neighbours and Australia) have never been strong personal givers to Rotary’s priority project – PolioPlus.

Similarly, many Clubs – but not all – throughout the Zone do not recognise the importance of funding support for PolioPlus, even though the project was launched at the International Assembly in Nashville USA way back in 1985.

Rotarians in many countries - led by the USA, India, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines and South Korea – back up every new year to provide generous financial support. Last year’s gubernatorial team across 25 Districts in New Zealand and Australia worked very hard to increase support but they were also charged with funding a ‘stand out’ health project for the children of the South Pacific to mark our Centenary Year of Rotary ‘Down Under’.

Crunch time has come for Polio funding in Zone 8.

As END POLIO NOW Coordinator in Zone 8, my challenge is for EVERY Rotarian to personally donate to Polio and EVERY Rotary Club to commit to President Shekhar Mehta’s request for US$1,500 to fund our priority project …

A tough challenge is often hard to accept but, if we always do what we have always done, these TWO major goals will never be achieved.

Let’s not subject ourselves to the usual last minute scramble in April, May and June next year.

Let’s make the commitment now and get plans underway – especially for World Polio Day on October 24!

We are always conscious of Rotarians being asked to ‘dig deep’ in their pockets for many great causes every year so let’s head in the opposite direction …

THE CLEM RENOUF and BILL BOYD END POLIO NOW CLUBS were launched last year to mark the Centenary Year and the death of our great leader Sir Clem Renouf – ‘Father’ of PolioPlus.

Just a couple of clubs took up the offer and they will be presented with Club certificates by their District Governors in the near future.

All it required was JUST $10 from each member in the Rotary Club and they have been confirmed as CLEM RENOUF or BILL BOYD END POLIO NOW CLUBS.

That’s just $10 a year! Not $10 a week, month or year as is so often the case with Rotary fundraisers.

‘Just a drop in the ocean. How will that be sufficient to significantly fund END POLIO NOW’, you might well ask.

Do the maths … at the end of June there were almost 35,000 Rotarians ‘down under’.

At $10 each, that provides the tidy sum of $350,000.

Then throw in $1,500 from more than 1,300 Rotary Clubs, and we have a further $1,950,000 for

a grant total of $2.3 million!!!

Yes, yes, yes … all wishful thinking, pie in the sky. I can hear the comments now and I probably agree but, you know what? Dreams are free.

Just half that amount would be a dream result for New Zealand, Australia and the island nations.

Let’s prove the cynics wrong and give it ‘a real shot’ in 2021/22 …