Student Donate Towards Polio Eradication Programme
The Rotaract club of Calabar, University of Calabar (ROTA-UNICAL) have held a “end polio now charity night” recently.
The humanitarian service club sponsored by the Rotary club of Calabar held the programme to educate the public about the crippling disease as well as raise funds towards the disease eradication at the conference room of the Ixora Suits.
In his opening remarks, the president ROTA-UNICAL, Rotr. Solomon Solomon Obio said “in order for more than 10 million children under the ages of five not to be paralysed in the next 40 years, all and sundry must wake up to the clarion call of funding the fight”.
Cross section of participants
The final year student of Human Anatomy, University of Calabar continued that the fight to end Polio will remain a mirage if the trend of under-funding of the initiative by individuals, organizations, and government of affected countries continues.
He called on all and sundry to contribute as little as US$0.60 towards the eradication of this crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease.
In her paper presentation entitled “Polio: a challenge to the Nigerian Child”, the guest speaker, Dr. Mfon Akpaso noted that Nigeria is identified as the country with the highest figure of the Poliomyelitis cases in the world alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively, according to World Health Organization (WHO).
She said:”indeed Nigeria is now the largest contributor of global Polio burden- nearly 60 per cent. Nigeria is also the only country in the world to have all three types of Polio virus- Type 1, type 3, and circulating vaccine-derived type 2 viruses”.
The senior Lecturer in the department of Human Anatomy, UNICAL suggested that despite declining figures of Poliomyelitis cases in the world, the fight against it still have to continue untill zero prevalence and incidence is achieved in view of its contagious and infectious nature.
“inspite of these figures, total eradication is actually the ultimate reason being that one case of the Human Polio Virus in a community can spread through the state in less than no time”. She said.
Highpoints of the programme was a question and answer session followed by fund-raising to assist in the fight to end Poliomyelitis in the world.
Daddy J, a popular Calabar comedian was on hand as he thrilled audience with rib-cracking jokes.
In separate interviews at the end of the event, Engr. Kehinde Bello, member of the Rotary Club of Lagos, Maryland applauded the efforts of the Rotaract Club stressing that “Rotaract is the backbone of Rotary and the fight to end Poliomyelitis is a collective responsibility between the two arms of Rotary International”.
He noted that the fight to end Polio in the soonest possible time is paramount to Rotary International because the disease paralyses the youths believed to be leaders of tomorow.
He said “Every Nation depends on the youth and Polio affects the youths faster and incapacitates them so it is seen as more deadlier”. “Anything that kills adult is not as deadlier as one that kills youth because youths are the future leaders” he concluded.
A one time vaccination volunteer, Godwin Omini urged individuals, corporate bodies and government to take the fight to end Polio serious by organising seminars and rallies to educate the public about the negative implications of this youths killer disease.
He also called for all hands to be on deck towards eradicating the dreaded virus through volunteering as a vaccinator during Polio immunisations, as well as reporting suspected Polio cases to the nearest health care for immediate action.
Rotn. Eyong, Samuel Bassey, the partner in service Rotary Club of Calabar said the biggest obstacles to eradicating Polio are the underfunding of the global initiative and insufficient political commitment from the remaining polio-affected countries, as it is believed that the primary source for additional funds can and should be governments of polio-free industrialized countries.
He added that contributions through Rotary will help ensure that they keep doing their part to get the job done as by the time the world is certified polio-free, Rotary’s contributions to the global polio eradication effort will exceed US$1.2 billion.
The programme that ended at about 9pm was anchored by the club’s immediate past president, Joel Bassey
C.D
The humanitarian service club sponsored by the Rotary club of Calabar held the programme to educate the public about the crippling disease as well as raise funds towards the disease eradication at the conference room of the Ixora Suits.
In his opening remarks, the president ROTA-UNICAL, Rotr. Solomon Solomon Obio said “in order for more than 10 million children under the ages of five not to be paralysed in the next 40 years, all and sundry must wake up to the clarion call of funding the fight”.
The final year student of Human Anatomy, University of Calabar continued that the fight to end Polio will remain a mirage if the trend of under-funding of the initiative by individuals, organizations, and government of affected countries continues.
He called on all and sundry to contribute as little as US$0.60 towards the eradication of this crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease.
In her paper presentation entitled “Polio: a challenge to the Nigerian Child”, the guest speaker, Dr. Mfon Akpaso noted that Nigeria is identified as the country with the highest figure of the Poliomyelitis cases in the world alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively, according to World Health Organization (WHO).
She said:”indeed Nigeria is now the largest contributor of global Polio burden- nearly 60 per cent. Nigeria is also the only country in the world to have all three types of Polio virus- Type 1, type 3, and circulating vaccine-derived type 2 viruses”.
The senior Lecturer in the department of Human Anatomy, UNICAL suggested that despite declining figures of Poliomyelitis cases in the world, the fight against it still have to continue untill zero prevalence and incidence is achieved in view of its contagious and infectious nature.
“inspite of these figures, total eradication is actually the ultimate reason being that one case of the Human Polio Virus in a community can spread through the state in less than no time”. She said.
Highpoints of the programme was a question and answer session followed by fund-raising to assist in the fight to end Poliomyelitis in the world.
Daddy J, a popular Calabar comedian was on hand as he thrilled audience with rib-cracking jokes.
In separate interviews at the end of the event, Engr. Kehinde Bello, member of the Rotary Club of Lagos, Maryland applauded the efforts of the Rotaract Club stressing that “Rotaract is the backbone of Rotary and the fight to end Poliomyelitis is a collective responsibility between the two arms of Rotary International”.
He noted that the fight to end Polio in the soonest possible time is paramount to Rotary International because the disease paralyses the youths believed to be leaders of tomorow.
He said “Every Nation depends on the youth and Polio affects the youths faster and incapacitates them so it is seen as more deadlier”. “Anything that kills adult is not as deadlier as one that kills youth because youths are the future leaders” he concluded.
A one time vaccination volunteer, Godwin Omini urged individuals, corporate bodies and government to take the fight to end Polio serious by organising seminars and rallies to educate the public about the negative implications of this youths killer disease.
He also called for all hands to be on deck towards eradicating the dreaded virus through volunteering as a vaccinator during Polio immunisations, as well as reporting suspected Polio cases to the nearest health care for immediate action.
Rotn. Eyong, Samuel Bassey, the partner in service Rotary Club of Calabar said the biggest obstacles to eradicating Polio are the underfunding of the global initiative and insufficient political commitment from the remaining polio-affected countries, as it is believed that the primary source for additional funds can and should be governments of polio-free industrialized countries.
He added that contributions through Rotary will help ensure that they keep doing their part to get the job done as by the time the world is certified polio-free, Rotary’s contributions to the global polio eradication effort will exceed US$1.2 billion.
The programme that ended at about 9pm was anchored by the club’s immediate past president, Joel Bassey
C.D
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