Counting Down to World Polio Day. Are you ready to celebrate?

World Polio Day, 24 October, is just a few weeks away. As you make your final preparations, remember to share your club event with us at endpolio.org. Already, hundreds of clubs around the world have planned local events to raise awareness in their communities.

World Polio Day, 24 October, is just a few weeks away. As you make your final preparations, remember to share your club event with us at endpolio.org. Already, hundreds of clubs around the world have planned local events to raise awareness in their communities.
  • In the U.S., the Rotary Clubs of Evanston and Evanston Lighthouse are screening Rotary’s latest virtual reality film, Two Drops of Patience, at their event so attendees can experience what it’s like to immunize children against polio.
  • In Indonesia, the Rotary Club of Bandung Selatan is hosting a walk to raise awareness about the need to eradicate polio.
  • In the Bahamas, the Rotary Club of Nassau is hosting a livestream viewing party and fundraising event, with all proceeds going to End Polio Now.
This year we’re encouraging all 35,000 Rotary clubs to create an event and promote it at endpolio.org. Join the celebration.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Celebrate all year long
Your World Polio Day event doesn’t have to happen on 24 October — you can hold an event any time of year.

In Brazil, hundreds of Rotary clubs, along with the Ministry of Health, launched a nationwide polio and measles immunization campaign 6 August-14 September. Rotary polio ambassador and model Isabeli Fontana lent her support by recording radio ads, sharing information on social media, conducting interviews with national and international media outlets, and visiting a health center in São Paulo.

Thanks to this campaign, Rotarians contributed to the vaccination of nearly all 11.1 million children under the age of five in Brazil.
 
 
Host a viewing party
Gather your club and community together to watch this year’s World Polio Day event. We’ll be streaming live from the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, starting at 18:30 Philadelphia time (UTC-04:00). Join us as global health leaders and celebrity ambassadors share our progress to end polio, and recognize the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

It was in Philadelphia, during the 1988 Rotary Convention, when Rotary announced it had raised what amounted to $247 million for the eradication of polio — twice its original fundraising goal. This success showed Rotary’s strength as an organization that could — and will — end a global disease.