I was delighted to assist Tony Rowland of Rotary Club of Croydon Jubilee with the arrangements for the planting of thousands of crocus corms to raise awareness of polio.
Mayor Jason Perry and Cllr Yvette Hopley came along to help us with the planting of the last of the 4000 bulbs along the edge of The Gruffy between the wooded areas and the pond.
Thanks go to Sanderstead Horticultural Society, to Sanderstead and Selsdon Rotary for all their help with the planting and for their support with this important project.
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years and their goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
Rotary say: “As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.”
Further details can be viewed at: https://www.rotary.org/en/our-causes/ending-polio
