THE HAGUE: Embassy of Pakistan, The Hague joined ‘Rotary End Polio Now Tulip Team’ to mark solidarity with the partners in fight against the disease from Pakistan.
Ambassador of Pakistan to the Netherlands Shujjat Ali Rathore planted tulips to launch the campaign on October 22nd.
Rotary took the initiative to free the world of the illness poliomyelitis in 1985. This initiative was embraced by the WHO, Unicef and CDC. Later the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined this mammoth task.
Since 2013, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has matched every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication 2-to-1, up to $100 million per year. Approximately US$ 1 billion is spent yearly in these programs.
Ambassador Rathore informed the audience about the hard work put in by Govt. of Pakistan to eradicate this terrible illness. Through the July-to-September vaccination campaigns of unprecedented scale, 40 Million children are vaccinated by 260,000 workers who weather all the odds.
Despite having enormous programmatic and geographical challenges, people and the government of Pakistan shall continue their fight to eradicate Polio, the Ambassador emphasized.
Later, Ambassador Rathore along with Ambassador of Afghanistan to the Netherlands Mohammad Asif Rahimi to launch ‘Rotary End Polio Now Tulip Team’ campaign planted tulips in the lawn of The International School of the Hague.
The Netherlands Rotarians’ have since 2014 used End Polio Now tulips as a fundraising tool. This has proven very successful. Last year, € 140,000/- were raised, which was tripled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Worldwide Rotary contributes every year US$ 50 million.
Ambassador Rathore thanked the global partners including Rotary, BMGF, CDC, UNICEF, and WHO for their support in Polio eradication programmes that have saved more than 1 million children from paralysis and The International School of the Hague for organizing the event at their premises.
