I AM writing on behalf of the Rotary Club of Swindon North to thank everyone who donated monies at our collection at Sainsbury’s, Bridgemead, over the weekend of February 20/21, and at Swindon Town Football Club before the game on February 23.
The amount raised at these two collections was some £772 and this money, together with other monies my club has raised, will go the End Polio Now campaign that Rotary International is promoting throughout the world. This latest effort by Rotary is to match the donation given directly to Rotary by Bill Gates (from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) where each £1 raised will get another £1.78 from the Foundation - making a total of £2.78. The vaccine to immunise one child costs just 50p, so each £1 donation will save more than five lives. So you will see that the £772 raised will immunise some 4,300 children against polio. The other monies we had raised was some £1,200 so a further 6,672 children will be immunised - nearly 11,000 children in all.
Rotary has been involved in helping to fund the eradication of Polio since 1985. In 1985 there were 125 endemic countries; in 2008 there were just four. From 1,000 new cases of polio a day in 1985 there were only 1,491 new cases in the whole of 2008.
Once again thank you to all who donated.
JOHN GOODEARL
Foundation Chairman
The Rotary Club of Swindon North
Manor Close
Swindon
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