Rotary International's "End Polio Now" campaign is very close to ending polio once and for all in the world. Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years.

Rotary has reduced polio cases by a mammoth 99.9% since the first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.

To observe this day, the Rotary Club of Midsomer Norton & Radstock are donating £500. Rotary members throughout the world have contributed more than $1.2 billion and countless volunteer hours to vaccinate and protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease.

 Today, polio remains only in a small part of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hopefully within six months polio will be eradicated here too. Of course it is crucial to keep other countries polio-free, the virus has not gone away! According to WHO if all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year, therefore the work to vaccinate children will continue.