For more than 35 years, Rotary has worked tirelessly to eradicate polio, and we’re closer than ever to achieving our goal of eradicating polio worldwide.

We are one of the founding entities of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, under which our work has been instrumental in reducing polio cases by 99.9 percent, since our first childhood vaccination project in the Philippines, in 1979.

Rotarians have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 3 billion children in 122 countries from this crippling disease. Rotary’s advocacy campaigns have played a key role in the decisions of governments around the world to contribute more than $10 billion to this cause.

Currently, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Despite the progress made, it is essential that we continue working so that other countries remain polio-free. If our work stopped today, within 10 years polio could paralyze approximately 200,000 children each year.

Learn about the history of Rotary and its work to eradicate polio