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As scientists work to find a vaccine for the new coronavirus, we can do our part to keep our communities healthy by helping Rotary spread the word about the importance of vaccinations during World Immunization Week, 24-30 April.
Immunizations save millions of lives every year and are widely recognized as one of our most successful and cost-effective health interventions. Yet outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases continue to put children’s health at risk around the world.
Rotary knows firsthand that #VaccinesWork. Since 1985, we’ve contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children from polio. When children receive the polio vaccine, their pinkie fingers are marked with purple ink so health workers will know which children received the vaccine. Today, only two countries continue to report cases of polio caused by the wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Take action in three easy ways:
Raise awareness of vaccination and polio eradication efforts by painting your nails — or pinkie — purple, or customize our new End Polio Now artwork with your signature and words of support. Post your pictures on social media using the hashtags #EndPolio and #VaccinesWork.
Download Rotary’s World Immunization Week Toolkit to get graphics and sample social media posts.
Donate to Rotary’s PolioPlus Fund. Your contribution will be tripled, thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Foundation Trustees worked quickly to add COVID-19 projects to their list of eligible activities for disaster response grants, transfer $3 million to our Disaster Response Fund for COVID-19 grants, and waive the 30 percent foreign financing requirement for any new global grant that addresses COVID-19.
Of course, we have applied the knowledge and resources we have built over many years in fighting another infectious disease: polio. The polio eradication program is already using its infrastructure to protect the vulnerable from COVID-19, especially in polio-endemic countries.
Please give what you can to help our Foundation, and our members will transform your gift into humanitarian efforts that are saving lives.. ...
