This Close...

This year marks 30 years since Rotary launched PolioPlus, its campaign to rid the world of polio. Since 1985 Rotary and its partners have helped reduce the number of cases from 350,000 annually to fewer than 400 in 2014, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunized, 10 million children have been saved from lifelong paralysis and 125 countries have been declared polio-free and they remain committed until the disease is eradicated.

Rotary has contributed more than $1.3 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect children worldwide. In addition, Rotary's advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by donor governments to contribute over $10 billion to the effort.

Though the PolioPlus program started in 1985, Rotary began the fight against polio much earlier. In 1979 Rotary members began a multiyear program that immunized more than 6 million children in the Philippines against poliothat was launched when the then Rotary President James L. Bomar Jr. put the first drops of vaccine into a child's mouth

In a 1993 interview, Bomar recalled how the brother of one of the children he'd immunized tugged on his pant leg to get his attention and said "Thank you, thank you, Rotary."

The success of this project set the stage for Rotary's top priority to rid the world of polio. Since Rotary introduced its PolioPlus campaign, the number of polio cases worldwide has dropped and the virus remains endemic in just three countries -- Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. We really are "this close...".

However, until we eliminate polio from its final reservoirs, children everywhere are at risk from this disease. Rotary, along with our partners, will work hard to ensure that the world's most vulnerable children are kept safe from polio.