Rotary Club of Londonderry

Rotary International has received a generous $355 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Rotary will part match over the next three years, to be used in the fight against polio.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working to ensure there are no new cases of polio by 2010 and to certify the eradication of the virus three years later. All involved parties believe this goal is attainable,and reaching it will demonstrate that remarkable improvements in health can be achieved even in the most challenging settings in the world.

Rotary's US $200 Million Challenge is Rotary's three-year fundraising commitment to part match the donation.

The resulting $555 million will directly support immunisation campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyse children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.

We need your help now!

If you would like to contribute to eradicating polio forever please contact us info@londonderryrotary.org

Your contribution will help Rotary raise $200 million to match the $355 million in challenge grants. As of 31 August 2010, Rotarians have raised about $145 million towards this challenge.

After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.

As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.

The work of Rotarians caught the attention of the news program 60 Minutes. In a segment that aired 3 October, a 60 Minutes reporter said the Gates Foundation joined with Rotary International "to bang on very door -- to find the last child who hasn't tasted the vaccine" to prevent polio.