Robert Fisher

I'm challenging myself to walk 300 km during the month of October to help raise funds for Rotary's End Polio Now campaign which needs all the support it can get to once and for all eliminate this awful disease.

Ending Polio has been Rotary's number one global campaign over the past 40 years. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), working closely with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and others, Rotary members and supporters have contributed more than US$2.1 billion and spent countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary's advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to expend more than US$10 billion towards the battle.

We are now at a stage where Polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, though isolated cases have recently been found in Papua New Guinea and Gaza. Vaccine hesitancy and conflict continue to plague attempts to erase that final 0.1% of cases, but GPEI remains committed to reaching its goal of total elimination. 

It's crucial that we continue working to keep countries Polio-free. If the campaign stopped today, within 10 years Polio could paralyze upwards of 200,000 children each year. So please join me in being part of the End Polio Now solution - Walk With Us and help raise funds for this worthy cause. Every $1 raised here becomes $3 thanks to the generosity of the Gates Foundation.