Crocus planting – adding a splash of purple to our community

For over 30 years now, Rotary and its members have been committed to fighting to eradicate polio across the world through its End Polio Now campaign.

 

When a child receives their life saving polio drops on mass polio immunisation days in many countries, their little finger is painted with a purple dye so it is clear they have received their life saving vaccine. In recognition of this, a couple of Saturdays ago Devizes Rotary once again organised the planting of a further ten thousand purple crocuses on The Green in Devizes, each one representing another immunised child.

Rotary’s pledge for a polio free world was made in 1985 when there were 125 polio endemic countries and hundreds of new cases every single day. In 2017 there were only 22 cases in the entire world but as long as there is one single case anywhere children everywhere are at risk.

Thanks to Rotary, and the support of our partners WHO, Unicef, CDC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there are now just three countries still classed as endemic: Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

To finish the job, over 2 billion doses of oral polio vaccine have to be administered each and every year in over 60 countries until the world is finally certified polio free.