Rotarian joins polio immunization efforts

Fallbrook Rotarian Dave Breeding just returned from India, where he was part of an international team of Rotarians sent to help protect children in India from polio, a crippling and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

As members of Rotary, a global network of business and professional leaders who have made eradicating polio worldwide their main philanthropic goal, this team of volunteers helped administer drops of oral polio vaccine to children under the age of 5, deliver the vaccine to health clinics, recruit fellow volunteers and go house to house in remote villages to make sure no child was missed during India’s nationwide polio immunization campaign.

Breeding was a part of a team of 30 from ten states in the US, Canada and Sweden. They joined together to immunize children in the towns of Yamunanagar, Haridwar, Roorkee, Dehradun and Chandigarh within the Indian states of Uttaranchal and Haryana. Each team member traveled at their own expense, as a Rotary volunteer, to take part in this project.

“I am so proud to be part of this historic effort to rid the world of this crippling disease that has impacted millions of lives throughout the centuries, including my own mother,” said Breeding. “No child today should have to suffer from polio, since an effective vaccine has made it totally preventable.”

Breeding will be the guest speaker at the regular noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Fallbrook on Monday, March 19, at the Grand Tradition in Fallbrook. The public is invited to attend to hear more about the Global Polio Eradication Project. Call Jack Wood, Rotary Club of Fallbrook president, at (760) 731-3193 for luncheon reservations by Friday, March 16.

For journal entries and photos from the volunteers please visit http://rotarynid.blogspot.com. For further information on the project, please visit http://www.rotary.org or http://www.polioeradication.org.