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
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.
Donation for the President’s cause
Terry Heritage marks the end of her year as Rotary in Harpenden President by presenting a cheque for £5,000 to the staff of Harpenden Plus Partnership, her special cause during her presidential year.
Terry said: ’Our donation will be used to support the work of family counsellors and the purchase of training courses for families and children around behaviour and trauma. During my visit I heard the challenges that children and families are facing especially around socialisation following the Covid pandemic.’
‘The best ideas we have seen’
Pitching their business ideas to three Dragons, Year 6 at High Beeches Junior School excelled themselves.
All 60 children were invited to form teams to create businesses to be operated at an upcoming school event with parents. Rotary in Harpenden provided training together with seed corn money to get the teams started. We then arranged for the Dragons to put the children through their paces.