Countdown to History
End Polio Now… That is the name of a campaign, begun by Rotary International in 1985, to rid the world of the debilitating disease polio. Since 1988 it has worked in partnership with the World Health Organisation, local agencies and, more recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Rotary in Harpenden have been a regular contributor to the campaign, donating a share of the money raised by our annual Quiz of Quizzes event. During the Covid pandemic, when we could not hold the quiz, we donated the proceeds from our virtual balloon race to the campaign.
Working together, the medical authorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan are making great strides in vaccinating children against polio. Only in those two countries does wild poliovirus remain endemic. Rotary in Harpenden will maintain their fundraising efforts in support
Find out more on the End Polio website.
Latest news
Friendship Boxes enliven Ukrainian children’s Christmas
For the second year, Rotary in Harpenden supplied Friendship Boxes to junior schools in the Harpenden, Redbourn and Wheathampstead area, to be filled by pupils and parents with educational and recreational items for sending to children in Ukraine.
Classics’ charities – in action
The contrast between the girl’s pristine school uniform and the pitiful conditions of her home is stark.
She’s a lucky one. Her secondary school education is totally free, thanks to Empowering Kids in Kenya, one of the five charities which shared the £30,000 raised by Rotary in Harpenden’s classic car show, Classics on the Common, in July.
Raising £130,000 for a Ugandan women’s hospital
How do you raise more than £130,000 to equip a Ugandan women’s medical centre with an operating theatre, transforming the centre into a fully-fledged hospital?
That was the task begun by Rotary in Harpenden under the leadership of Dr Jim McWhirter of the Reading Matins Rotary Club.