Rotary final steps: making the world Polio Free

At a recent global meeting chaired by US Center for Decease Control and Prevention (CDC), CDC Director Tom Frieden said that the world is on the final steps to eradicating polio from the face of the earth and we must not stop on our tracks. “Rotary together with its country partners has done such a phenomenal job for so many decades in this area, we are poised to get over the line and end polio once and for all,” said Frieden.

In this backdrop, Rotary Sri Lanka - District 3220 staged an evening meeting titled ‘Polio free Sri Lanka - journey so far and next steps’ where an eminent faculty shared the Sri Lankan template. The Immediate Past President for Rotary International K. Ravindran talked about the uniqueness of this quest in he height of the war in Sri Lanka. Rotary Sri Lanka championed a one day truce between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTEE so that Government officials, together with Rotarians and UN officials, moved into the Vanni and immunised the children in the north and east of Sri Lanka, helping make Sri Lanka Polio free.

The panel discussion was staged in Sri Lanka on the ‘ Final stages of making the world Polio Free”. The eminent expert panel consist of WHO Polio Eradication Manager Chirs Mahen, Rotary Polio Eradication Task Force in UK Chair Judith Dimment and Rotary International Polio Committee Leader Mike McGovern shared the global template on what has been achieved and the next challenges the world faces to make the world polio free in the year to come.

Project Leader Krish Rajendran mentioned that this was a landmark initiative that made Sri Lanka stand out in the world of Rotary. At the event, the hand-picked special invitees consisted of key policy makers and Rotary Presidents of each of the 75 clubs around Sri Lanka who discussed the way forward in keeping Sri Lanka Polio free and how Rotary can lead the world in taking the final steps to eradicate Polio in the near future.