Bill Gates' $200-M challenge to Rotarians

In January 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $255 million to Rotary International (RI) in support of the global effort to eradicate poliomyelitis, or polio for short. The donation was given on the condition posed by Gates to the RI to match this amount that they can raise from their own charity fund-raising activities. Thus, it brought the total funds committed by Rotary and the Gates Foundation to the tune of $555 million to bankroll the global campaign to eradicate polio. But why polio?

There are still “wild polio” outbreaks in some parts of the world. It currently exists in a few poor and developing countries in Africa and Asia, including the Philippines. According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, there were 1,659 cases of polio in 18 countries as of 2008.

Polio is a debilitating disease that causes paralysis and afflicts everyone, whether rich or poor. Polio is caused by a virus usually spread or transmitted from the stool of an infected person to the mouth of another person transmitted by hands, or through objects such as eating utensils. Polio was once called an infantile paralysis because children, more than adults, usually get infected with the disease.

It was in 1988 when the World Health Organization (WHO) first started the anti-polio campaign to eradicate this muscle disease afflicting many young people across the globe. Although the initial target date of polio eradication was in 2000, it was not met. The WHO reported there has been substantial progress made through the years. During that year, there were 350,000 reported cases of polio in the world; in 2001, just 483 cases were reported.

Unfortunately, rumors about the safety of polio vaccine in 2003, and the subsequent refusal of the vaccine by many parents in Nigeria, led to the increase of cases and spread of the virus to nearby countries that had previously been “polio-free.” In 2003, there were 784 reported cases; in 2004, there were 1,255 reported cases.

Aside from the WHO, many other organizations have been working hard toward eradicating polio.

One of the anti-polio campaigns is being spearheaded by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. The Rotary Foundation was established in 1917 as an endowment fund. It was subsequently organized in 1931 as a Trust. Later in 1983, it was established as a not-for-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Illinois, USA. The Rotary Foundation is operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes.

Based on their brochures, the Rotary Foundation declared its “mission” to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. Specifically, the Rotary Foundation has committed to achieve the goals of eradicating polio through the completion of their organization’s “PolioPlus Program” for the purpose.

In the article written by Arnold R. Grahl and Dan Nixon in the Rotary International News on Jan. 21, 2009, they reported that the two Gates Foundation challenge grants now total $355 million. Rotary International’s efforts to match the Gates’ donation to this “PolioPlus Program” is called Rotary’s $200 million challenge.

Billionaire Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, formed with his wife the Gates Foundation in 1994 in Seattle, Washington where it is based. The various donations of the Gates Foundation all over the world spread the global “philantro-capitalism” revolution.

The Gates' $200 million Rotary Challenge must be completed by June 30, 2012. The Rotary was able to raise $100 million in matching funds. In November 2007, RI received a $100 million Gates Foundation grant, which Rotary committed to match by raising another $100 million.

“We are going to end polio now,” affirmed Robert S. Scott, chair of RI’s International PolioPlus Committee. This was in response to the new $255 million Gates Foundation grant. Government support is key to polio eradication efforts, said Scott. The $255 million grant is one of the largest challenge grants-in-aid ever given by the Gates Foundation and the largest received by Rotary in its 104-year history.

Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985, with more than $1.2 billion contributed to the effort. Gates praised Rotary for providing the volunteers, advocates, and donors who have helped bring about a 99 percent decline in the number of polio cases. “The world would not be where it is without Rotary, and it won’t get where it needs to go without Rotary,” Gates was quoted as telling the Rotarians.

The Rotary Foundation will spend the grant in direct support of immunization activities carried out by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is spearheaded by RI and its partners that include the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.

The participation of Rotary Clubs and individual Rotarians in Rotary’s $200 million challenge remains crucial to its success. Rotary has raised nearly $73 million toward this amount: $62 million in contributions and $11 million in commitments. Each club is being challenged to organize a public fund-raiser annually for the next three years.

Here in the Philippines, various Rotary Clubs are deep in their respective drives to help their mother organization, the Rotary International, to meet and match the $200 million Gates challenge for the anti-polio campaign.

The Philippines has been polio-free since 2000, and the country is going to great lengths to keep it that way. This is because polio is a virus that likes to travel and spread its infection to the most vulnerable groups of host bodies.

The Department of Health has adopted strategies that include house-to-house vaccination and conducts an annual national polio immunization activity using Salk vaccine or the Sabin oral vaccine. The immunization targets children, being the most vulnerable group.

This is to prevent the re-entry of polio outbreak in the country. As long as there is an outbreak anywhere in the world, being “polio-free” already is no guarantee there will be no resurgence of this disease in our country. Preventing the recurrence of polio outbreak in the Philippines thus leads to the ultimate goal of total eradication of this crippling disease.

Happy New Year to one and all!