At the end of the 1980s, more than 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio every year. Today, Rotary and its partners have reduced the incidence of polio by 99.9 percent. However, until we see the last of the poliovirus, eradication efforts need additional funding to IMMUNIZE more than 400 million children against polio every year for polio eradication (at a cost of $150 million per year), IMPROVE disease surveillance systems to detect any poliovirus in a person or the environment and HIRE
more than 150,000 health workers to go door to door to find every child

We appeal for your donation towards the Rotary Club of Knights Pendragon’s annual collection for this international project. For each $1 that the club contributes, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute a further $2 towards taking this important project to its conclusion. As such, your donation will be multiplied and have a greater impact in supporting this project than you may have contemplated.

YOUR DONATION:

1. WILL IMPROVE LIVES

Today, 19 million people who would otherwise be paralyzed by polio are walking, and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive.

2. IS AN INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE.

If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. A polio-free world will be a healthier world for children everywhere.

3. WILL IMPROVE CHILD HEALTH.

Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other health problems, like vitamin deficiency and measles, so we can address them sooner.

4. WILL LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS.

The global effort to eradicate polio has already saved more than $27 billion in health care costs since 1988, and expects to save $14 billion more by 2050.

5. WILL MAKE HISTORY.

Polio eradication will be one of history’s greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eradicated from the world.

The Rotary Club of Knights Pendragon expresses its sincere gratitude to donors who have assistance the club in raising the full amount of R60,000 for a high school scholarship for an academically accomplished young rural villager to complete her remaining 4 years of high school.

The beneficiary of the scholarship is a young girl, of a single parent of very limited means and living in a rural village, who has studiously succeeded in to achieve academically despite her humble beginnings. While at primary school she came to the attention of individuals in the Partners for Possibility NGO and was assisted to successfully apply for a 50% bursary to a good boarding high school in an urban centre, there being no high school close to her village.

Knights Pendragon and with others, committed to raise money to fund the other 50% of her high school fees in order to ensure the best possibility of her completing her high school education and taking her a step close to a tertiary qualification and the possibility of earning a good income in future years.

Polio

Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a paralyzing and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in some parts of the world. Poliovirus invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in hours. It can strike people of any age but mainly affects children under five. Polio can be prevented by vaccines, but it is not curable. Unlike most diseases, polio can be eradicated.

PolioPlus

For more than 30 years, Rotary and our partners have driven the effort to eradicate polio worldwide. Our PolioPlus program was the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication by vaccinating children on a massive scale. As a core partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary focuses on advocacy, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and awareness-building.

Rotary members have contributed $1.9 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $8 billion to the effort.

Polio Today

With our partners, we have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent, from 350,000 cases in 125 countries in 1988 to just 33 cases caused by the wild virus in 2018. Only two countries continue to report cases of wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan. The infrastructure we helped build to end polio is also being used to treat and prevent other diseases and create lasting impact in other areas of public health.

Challenges

Rotary and our partners have made tremendous progress against polio, but eliminating all cases is going to take even more progress and perseverance. Afghanistan and Pakistan face unique challenges, including political insecurity, highly mobile populations, difficult terrain, and, in some instances, logistical barriers. With sufficient resources, the commitment of national governments, and innovations that improve access to remote areas, we are optimistic that we can eliminate polio.

Ensuring Success

Rotary has committed to raising $50 million per year for polio eradication. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged to match that 2-to-1, for a total commitment of $150 million each year. These funds provide much-needed operational support, medical workers, laboratory equipment, and educational materials. Governments, corporations, and private donors all play a crucial role in funding.

Rotary in Action

More than 1 million Rotary members have donated their time and money to eradicate polio, and every year, hundreds of member’s work with health workers to vaccinate children in countries affected by polio. Rotary members work with UNICEF and other partners to prepare and distribute informational materials for people in areas that are isolated by conflict, geography, or poverty. They also mobilize to recruit fellow volunteers, assist in transporting the vaccine, and provide other logistical support.

Celebrity Support

Rotary has a growing list of public figures and celebrities who support our fight against polio, including Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; actresses Kristen Bell and Archie Panjabi; actor and wrestling superstar John Cena; supermodel Isabeli Fontana; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; action-movie star Jackie Chan; actor Donald Sutherland; boxing great Manny Pacquiao; pop star Psy; golf legend Jack Nicklaus; conservationist Jane Goodall; premier violinist Itzhak Perlman; Grammy Award winners A.R. Rahman, Angélique Kidjo, and Ziggy Marley; and peace advocate Queen Noor of Jordan. These ambassadors help Rotary educate the public about the disease and the fight to end polio for good.  

The Rotary Club of Knights Pendragon will be participating with other Rotary District 9400 clubs in the Rotary Family Health Days to be held on 2^nd to 4^th October 2019 at the following locations in the East Rand area. Each location having been uniquely identified in consultation with the Department of Health to provide services to people who would otherwise not have access to care:

• Vlakplaats Farm, Brickfield Rd, Vosloorus on Wednesday, 2^nd October 2019
• Phumulani Mall, Oliphantsfonteim Rd, Tembisa on Thursday, 3^rd October 2019
• Mayfield Informal Settlement, Daveyton on Friday, 4^th October 2019

The three-day, integrated annual program provides holistic, comprehensive, preventative health programs aimed at combatting both for communicable and non-communicable diseases in underserviced communities.

Delivered through a public/private partnership, the program leverages and inspires a massive force of humanitarian-driven volunteers through Rotary clubs in multiple countries in Africa and India. The intent and objective of RFHD is to work in with the Department of Health and assist in having a direct impact in strengthening infrastructure for health care delivery systems worldwide.

Rotary Family Health Days program is now entering its 8th year in Africa and 7th year of service in South Africa and is working towards: Maternal and Child Health, Disease Prevention and Treatment, and Economic and Community Development. For more information on Rotary Family Health Days visit http://rfhdsouthafrica.co.za

Knights Pendragon held their 26th annual Youth Leadership Training camp the Scripture Union, Kadesh Barnea camp in Skeerpoort, Magaliesburg, in mid-May.

The Training camp was attended by 65 grade 11 learners from 21 schools from the East Rand and Johannesburg. Each school is asked to choose the learners they send based on their leadership potential and such that this potential can be further developed. During the 3 day camp learners are taught a variety of leadership and teamwork skills by professional facilitators who are assisted by the Rotarians of the Knights Pendragon Rotary club with the various exercises. The skills learnt are such that they can be put into practice both at school and in their future work environments.

Rotary does not charge for this project and is dependent on the donations of socially responsible companies to enable the club to provide these life skills to young leaders. We are greatly appreciative of the sponsorships contributed by our corporate donors. In particular, we would like thank Mrs Anina Koekemoer of Koekemoer & Adendorf Inc. and Mr Chris de Beer for sharing their invaluable knowledge with the learners at the camp.

Rotary supports activities and training that reduce the cause and effect of disease including:

1. Improving the capacity of local health care professionals;
2. Promoting disease prevention programs, with the goal of limiting the spread of communicable
diseases and reducing the incidences of and complications from non-communicable diseases;
3. Enhancing the health infrastructure of local communities;
4. Educating and mobilizing communities to help prevent the spread of major diseases;
5. Preventing physical disability resulting from disease or injury;
6. Supporting studies for career-minded professionals related to disease prevention and treatment.

The largest Rotary International project focused on this theme is PolioPlus, the decades long running project to systematically eradication the poliomyelitis virus from the world which has reduced endemic polio to only 3 remaining countries.

PolioPlus – A Rotary Foundation Project

Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5. Most know it as the poliovirus which is spread from person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can attack the nervous system, and in some instances, lead to paralysis. Although there is no cure, there is a safe and effective vaccine – one which Rotary and our partners use to immunize over 2.5 billion children worldwide.

Polio Plus is a Rotary Foundation project aimed at vaccinating vulnerable children globally, to immunize them from contracting the Poliomylitis virus. The Rotary effort to eradicate the Poliovirus started in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Phillipines, the project rook on global proportions and became known as PolioPlus when in 1985 a target of Million was set to raise funds for this eradication effort. Progress has been significant and since 1988 the project has successfully reduced the global incidence of Poliovirus cases by 99.9%.

By 2009 Rotary’s overall contribution to this Poliovirus eradication effort nears the million mark In January, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged million to PolioPlus and issued Rotary a challenge grant of million i.e. Rotary needed to raise the million to receive the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation monies and secure a combined million in support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Rotary achieved their million fundraising target in 2012, some 5 months ahead of the target date.

In 2017, there are only 3 countries from which the Poliovirus is yet to be eliminated. The Rotary Club of Knights Pendragon supports the PolioPlus with annual contributions towards the costs of this significant immunization project.  Knights Pendragon seeks community minded donors to assist us in contributing this global effort.

If you are able to assist Knights Pendragon with a donation to assist this project achieve its aim, please contact our Fundraising Director.

From 3rd to 5th October, the Rotary Clubs of Knights Pendragon teamed up with the Department of Health at Klopper Park Clinic to reach out to underprivileged communities in the greater Germiston area by facilitating their access to free health services.

The aim of the Rotary Family Health Day project is to facilitate the provision of health-care services to under-served families, during which interventions healthy living and disease prevention is promoted. A primary focus of the project is on addressing Africa’s most pressing health challenges, including the immunizing of children against polio, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Also promoted during the health days is the regular washing of hands with soap as a preventative measure against disease.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the 3 day project, Rotarians assisted the Department of Health by promoting the free health services, directing and coordinating the many people who arrive or are transported to the venue. Some 350 patients took advantage of the primary health care facilities provided by the project.