Follow Ramesh's Journey

This morning it was about -5 in Whitehorse, Yukon Canada. I was wearing gloves, a toque, a shirt and jeans. I was lugging around a backpack and carrying one crutch in my hand because the other hand was dragging a suitcase through the snow and ice. I chose not to wear a winter jacket, as I didn’t want to bring something so big and bulky half way around the world when I didn’t need it.

Today I am travelling to India – my birth country – to work with Rotary International and help them in the crusade against polio.  Polio paralyzed my legs for life 28 years ago, but cases of the disease have dropped 99 per cent since then. It’s an exciting time in world history and everyone has a choice to be a part of it. Rotarians around the world – 1.3 million of them, from 33,000 clubs and 200 countries and geographical locations –continue to demonstrate their leadership and commitment towards a polio-free world.

Through Rotary’s organizational mandate, their financial contributions to the PolioPlus campaign of $700 million (and growing) US Dollars since 1985, and the millions of Rotarians who volunteer their time to ensure that children around the world are immunized, the organization is making a difference. Rotary is the largest private sector financial contributor to polio eradication. Only governments contribute more. Obviously, Rotary couldn’t tackle this problem on its own. Partnering organizations such as the World Health Organization, The United Nations, UNICEF, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and the G8 leaders have all worked tirelessly over these past few decades to forward the largest public health initiative in human history, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

In 1980, 1000 children a day spread out across 125 countries contracted polio. Today, polio is endemic in four countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. We have never been so close to ridding the world of this horrible disease than we are today. I can’t thank Rotary enough for inviting me to assist the GPEI and to help provide the polio vaccine to the children who need it.

Over the next couple of days, I will share the experience of participating in the National Immunization Days (NIDs), meeting members of GPEI partner organizations, as well as some of the chats, and visits with the many locals I anticipate I’ll meet. It’s important for the world to know that the threat of polio anywhere is a threat to children everywhere. If the global community does not meet the annual funding requirements and halts the polio eradication effort, the World Health Organization predicts that an additional 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years.  We would also risk losing the six billion dollar global investment in polio eradication efforts. Come on, world – let’s make history! Please do your part in the fight against polio and donate to the cause.