District 7780 - Foundation Programs

Give a Special Gift this Christmas

Help keep Bangladesh polio free.

Join us as we immunize the children of Bangladesh.

Save a child from the crippling grip of polio.

It may be the best gift you ever gave to yourself.

PDG Dave Groner of D6360 Dowagiac, MI

and

PP Ann Lee Hussey of D7780 South Berwick, ME

Chairperson Polio Survivors & Associates Rotarian Action Group

will lead a team of Rotary volunteers to participate in an NID

in the country of Bangladesh from December 3 – December 17. The team will immunize for 5 days in the Dhaka area and then travel to Kolkata (Calcutta), India to visit Rotary projects and Mother Teresa sites. Previous plans were to immunize in Bihar, India but due to the government of India changing NID dates we had to cancel. Bangladesh borders the polio endemic region of India, and though certified polio free, remains at risk for continued importation cases which it has seen over the last several months. Help us keep the polio virus out of an AT-Risk country.

Due to the sudden changes in our itinerary, the exact total trip cost is not available yet but will be shortly. We expect the cost to be the same as before, around $4550. This cost includes roundtrip airfare Newark, NJ to Delhi, India, orientation at the WHO office, visit St. Stephen’s Hospital (corrective surgery), roundtrip airfare from India to Bangladesh, Rotary projects, Mother Teresa’s grave, Sisters of Charity orphanage, sightseeing of Kolkata including the famous Howrah Bridge, picturesque flower market of Kolkata, riverside morning prayers and more. There are lower airfares available the sooner you register. Also due to these changes some team members have needed to drop out. We are currently accepting new registrations, especially women volunteers. You must act now in order to obtain necessary Visas in time.

To reserve your place on this special NID trip, contact

Ann Lee Hussey at annlee001@yahoo.com

Your Rotary Foundation – Will It Be Here Tomorrow?

Rotarians interested in “making a difference” in their community or in another community around the world often look to Our Rotary Foundation for help. Perhaps you have run into an exceptional local student interested in seeking graduate study in a foreign land as an Ambassadorial Scholar or who might be interested in Our Rotary Foundation’s Peace Scholar Program. Or maybe you have met a member of a Group Study Team (GSE) who is willing to work with your club on a matching grant bringing water to a third world community in another part of the world. Or perhaps your community wants to start a soccer league for kids with disabilities under a District Simplified Grant (DSG). All of these are things you can do with Our Rotary Foundation. Exciting stuff with great opportunities for “Service Above Self”.

But what would happen if you didn’t consider contributing each year to our “Annual Program Fund?” Thousands would not benefit from Group Study Exchange; millions would not benefit from Rotary’s Health, Hunger and Humanity Grants; thousands would face the day without drinkable water; and over 500,000 children would face life with polio. You do make a difference and all Rotarians need to contribute annually to Our Rotary Foundation!

Bob Laux, PDG of Bethel, our District’s Annual Giving Chair this year wants to challenge your Club in a special way. Hear about what Our Foundation can do for you, with your support. Schedule him for your Club meeting or event to speak on Our Rotary Foundation.

Bob can be reached at 207-824-4500 (w) 207-824-3777 (h) or 207-381-1000 (c) or bob@wildriverrealty.com

The following information was requested by some of the Attendees @ the Water, Health, and Hunger breakout session at the District Assembly on April 18, 2007.

POLIOPLUS

Presented by Joan Correll, PolioPlus Chair, 2007-2008

7780 District Assembly

April 18, 2007

RI’s most ambitious project to date – to immunize all of the world’s children against polio.

Why polio? Global humanitarian program where members could actively participate not just by fundraising, but also in volunteering in their communities and across the world – the cornerstone of Rotary’s charter. If smallpox could be eradicated, why not polio?

Rotary is the largest private sector donor – contributing over $600 million to the polio eradicating activities in over 122 countries.

HISTORY OF POLIOPLUS

1894 – first known outbreak – VT

1916 – first large epidemic – NYC

1979 – last US case of polio

1979 – Philippines – made a 5-year commitment to provide and help deliver polio vaccine to 6 mil children. First project of the new Health, Hunger, and Humanity (3-H) Program. In the next 4 years, similar 5-year commitments were approved for Haiti, Bolivia, Morocco, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia.

1985 – RI Pres. Canseco launches PP – has Dr. Albert Sabin (invents oral vaccine)– Special Consultant to "2005 Committee"

2005 – Goal of total eradication (RI’s 100th anniversary)

What is the "Plus" in Polioplus anyway??????

Vitamin A

Measles

Tetanus, etc.

Now Plus is:

Massive public education

Vaccine deployment to remote areas

Public-private partnerships

Worldwide laboratory network

Cease-fire truce agreements

What are "Polio Partners"?

WHO – World Health Organization

UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund

CDC – Centers for Disease Control

Where are we today?

In order to be certified POLIO Free – after 3 years with no new cases.

Final 4 endemic countries left – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan.

These 4 endemic countries have instituted new strategies to combat the challenges. Supplemental NID’s with vaccines for other childhood diseases and mosquito nets for malaria prevention.

What can we do now?

Participate in the PolioPlus Program:

Raise funds and donate to PolioPlus Program.
Go to www.rotary.org, click on The Rotary Foundation, click on PolioPlus in the left-hand column. Please contact the 2007-2008 District PolioPlus Chair, Joan Correll at joanc@correllassociates.com for any further assistance.

U.S. Saved 135,000 Lives, $810 Billion Using Polio Vaccines

By Vivek Shankar

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) – The U.S. in the past 50 years saved about 135,000 lives and $810 billion in health-care costs by using polio vaccines, a study found.

An additional 25,000 lives will be saved by 2015, said lead author Kim Thompson, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, in an e-mail yesterday. By 2015, health-care savings will top $1 trillion, she said.

The U.S. spent about $35 billion on polio treatments between 1955 and 2005, an investment that has helped eradicate the disease in the country. Polio still afflicts 2,000 people every year – most of them in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, according to the United Nations.

The findings "should help people understand and better appreciate the huge economic savings that can come from investments in public-health interventions", Thompson said in a statement distributed by Newswise on Jan. 19.

Over the next 10 years, the U.S. will spend $6.3 billion on polio vaccinations.

The UN’s World Health Organization says global polio eradication efforts are short of funds by $575 million for fiscal 2008. Polio, caused by a virus, most commonly affects children under age three and can cause total paralysis.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Vivek Shankar in San Francisco at vshankar3@bloomberg.net .