Our Nigeria Experience
Rotary International has been involved with the worldwide eradication of Polio since 1985. This has been accomplished in partnership with the World Health Organization and UNICEF. In 1988, there were about 350,000 new cases of Polio reported in over 100 Countries. Today, there are only four Countries where Polio eradication has not been completely realized. Rotary's role has been to raise funds, through the Rotary Foundation, for immunization programs and create awareness for the need to continue to immunize children until Polio is completely eradicated from our World.
Nigeria is one of the Countries where Polio still exists. Until the last few years, Rotarians from around the World were not able to participate in Polio immunizations in Nigeria. The Government of Nigeria, in cooperation with the World Health Organization, conducted the bulk of the immunizations in this Country. The Nigerian Rotarians act as monitors to insure that the Polio vaccines were getting to those that needed it.
In January, Scottie and I, along with ten Rotarians from our local Rotary District 5240, and with eight other Rotarians from different parts of the Country, banded together to participate in one of the quarterly immunization program projects in Nigeria. This was made possible because of the efforts of Cambria Rotarian Bruce Howard, who led one of the first non-Nigerian teams to this Country in the previous year. Our mission was to partner with the local Nigerian Rotarians and to monitor the activities of the January immunization. These are done at least quarterly to insure that the children get the necessary vaccines into their systems. Additionally, our team actively participated in immunizations of hundreds of children from throughout Nigeria.
Nigeria has a land mass that is somewhat equal to the combined sizes of California, Oregon, and Washington. The population is roughly 147 million. Upon our arrival into Nigeria, the team split into four groups and were dispatched to four completely different parts of the Country. Scottie and I were in a group that was assigned to Lagos; which is the second largest City in the world with an estimated population of 15 million. It is probably the most polluted City in the world, and certainly, in my opinion, the greatest concentration of poverty anywhere. We spent a total of nine days in Lagos. The conditions that people live in there was pretty depressing. We simply focused on the children to keep our minds away from the day to day conditions that we faced. During this January immunization, nearly 7 million children were vaccinated from throughout the Country; of which nearly 3 million were from Lagos. It takes literally thousands of volunteers and low paid workers to pull this effort off on a quarterly cycle.
We found the Nigerian Rotarians very friendly and they worked very hard to try and make us welcome in their Country. We found that our presence in their Country gave them some motivation to keep on going. They find it difficult to image that people would actually travel 8,725 miles to assist them immunize their children. But, Rotary is a worldwide humanitarian organization. We made some new friends, and we are sure that they will accomplish their goal of complete eradication of Polio in Nigeria in the not to distant future.
Frank & Scottie Ortiz, Rotary Club of Santa Maria Breakfast
Nigeria is one of the Countries where Polio still exists. Until the last few years, Rotarians from around the World were not able to participate in Polio immunizations in Nigeria. The Government of Nigeria, in cooperation with the World Health Organization, conducted the bulk of the immunizations in this Country. The Nigerian Rotarians act as monitors to insure that the Polio vaccines were getting to those that needed it.
In January, Scottie and I, along with ten Rotarians from our local Rotary District 5240, and with eight other Rotarians from different parts of the Country, banded together to participate in one of the quarterly immunization program projects in Nigeria. This was made possible because of the efforts of Cambria Rotarian Bruce Howard, who led one of the first non-Nigerian teams to this Country in the previous year. Our mission was to partner with the local Nigerian Rotarians and to monitor the activities of the January immunization. These are done at least quarterly to insure that the children get the necessary vaccines into their systems. Additionally, our team actively participated in immunizations of hundreds of children from throughout Nigeria.
Nigeria has a land mass that is somewhat equal to the combined sizes of California, Oregon, and Washington. The population is roughly 147 million. Upon our arrival into Nigeria, the team split into four groups and were dispatched to four completely different parts of the Country. Scottie and I were in a group that was assigned to Lagos; which is the second largest City in the world with an estimated population of 15 million. It is probably the most polluted City in the world, and certainly, in my opinion, the greatest concentration of poverty anywhere. We spent a total of nine days in Lagos. The conditions that people live in there was pretty depressing. We simply focused on the children to keep our minds away from the day to day conditions that we faced. During this January immunization, nearly 7 million children were vaccinated from throughout the Country; of which nearly 3 million were from Lagos. It takes literally thousands of volunteers and low paid workers to pull this effort off on a quarterly cycle.
We found the Nigerian Rotarians very friendly and they worked very hard to try and make us welcome in their Country. We found that our presence in their Country gave them some motivation to keep on going. They find it difficult to image that people would actually travel 8,725 miles to assist them immunize their children. But, Rotary is a worldwide humanitarian organization. We made some new friends, and we are sure that they will accomplish their goal of complete eradication of Polio in Nigeria in the not to distant future.
Frank & Scottie Ortiz, Rotary Club of Santa Maria Breakfast