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The Rotaract Club of Reno joined by local citizens gathered Sunday, April 10 to participate in a race in hopes to raise money for the Polio Plus Foundation and eradicate Polio. Rotary is a non-profit organization and has 33,000 clubs worldwide that have put their efforts toward eradicating Polio for the past 20 years. Polio is a crippling disease that cannot be cured but can be prevented. A vaccine costs 60 cents and can protect a child from this disease for life. Rotary International has various types of fundraisers to help rob the world of this disease once and for all. The Rotaract Club of Reno chose to put on a Polio Purple Pinkie Fun Run with a 10K and a 2-mile walk. Vicki Puliz is the new generations service chair for the Rotary District 5190. Puliz joined Rotary about 18 years ago, has been to India and given Polio vaccinations.
“Polio Purple Pinkie Fun Run got its name because every time you gave drops to a child you would paint their pinkie with a purple permanent marker,” Puliz said. “Then whoever brought there children in got the immunization and they would check every single house in every village to make sure every child under the age of 5 got the immunization.”
Many people are unaware that Polio is still around and are very uninformed. In 1985 there were over 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries and due to Rotaract’s efforts the total number of people left with the disease globally as of 2010 is 1,292. The disease typically strikes kids ages 5 and under and is as easily spread with something as simple as sharing a glass of water with someone who is a carrier of the virus.
“If the Polio Foundation raises $200 million by 2012 Bill Gates will give us a matching grant of $355 million,” said Chelsea Truax, the past president of the Rotaract Club of Reno who put on the run. “They are sure that all the money combined is enough to eliminate polio forever. There are four countries left that still have the polio disease and those are: Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.”
As of March 10 Rotarians have raise about $163.4 million and the number keeps rising. All together the amount of $555 million will go directly to support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
“I would go through villages and they would ask me why we don’t have Polio in America,” Puliz said, “I would explain to them that we have been immunizing in America. Being an American in these countries attracted attention and we used that attention to inform the people about the vaccinations.”
The problem in these countries is that they are not informed. By telling mothers and giving them information it has helped to let the people in these countries know about the immunization and how it helps.
“I helped give the drops and attended many press conferences,” Puliz said. “You have to kind of step back and see that not everyone in India is literate, and not many women are literate. So a big part of it is to publicize it so that people who cannot read will bring their children and to come and get the drops.”
In these countries the water is not clean and the people are not educated in how to take care of their personal hygiene. The effort in actually traveling to these countries is to help these people realize that there is a way to prevent Polio and not everyone in the world battles this horrid disease. In these countries they have immunization days. They have fixed booths where people give the immunizations, which are distributed through drops given orally.
“Being able to put on a run that reaches out to the community and really gives people the opportunity to understand what we are doing,” Truax said. “It helps them to understand what is going on with Polio that they may not be aware of. That was one benefit of the run it really demonstrated to the community what Rotary does.”
The Rotaract Club of Reno is a branch of Rotary, which is the international club. Together they have the potential to end Polio forever.
“These drops and this funding are so important having eliminated 99 percent of the cases of polio,” Puliz said, “This last percent is the most difficult and also the most important.”
Rotary hopes to eradicate Polio globally and is on track to receive the grant from the Bill Gates Foundation in 2012.