Mike McGovern, Chairman of the Rotary International Polio-Plus committee, shared with us that polio vaccinations would begin as soon as it was safe for our workers. Supplies are already in place on the border. "I cannot emphasize how difficult this is in an active war zone."On Saturday, the news broke: The World Health Organization and its partners are gearing up for an ambitious mass vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip after an 11-month-old boy contracted the Palestinian enclave’s first case of polio in 25 years.
“All his limbs are now paralyzed,” the boy’s mother, Nevin Abu al-Jidyan, said in a telephone interview this week from her tent in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. “The left side is more rigid. He is even unable to bend over. I cannot even help him sit.”
The campaign is scheduled to begin Sunday and will roll out in phases. The Israeli military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.
"Rotary provides substantial funding to respond to these outbreaks that occur outside the endemic countries," said McGovern. "$67 million was provided to WHO and UNICEF by Rotary in the 12 months ended on June 30, 2024. The Rotary funds are allocated for quick responses by WHO and UNICEF to all the countries where they are needed for response. It is unlikely that our monies will be spent directly in Gaza as many countries and others are so eager to give direct funding. Thus, our funds are being spent in countries with just as much need but which are not in the forefront of the news each day. We do though fund the WHO personnel who are leading the response in Gaza. Without the folks we fund, the response we are now seeing in Gaza would not be as quick nor as effective."
Please keep the front-line workers who are ready to provide vaccinations in this active war zone in your thoughts."
See the full story at https://wapo.st/4e45xPE
You too can help by donating to Polio-Plus at http://rotary.org/donate