Purple Pinky Week

Vital Stats

Cynthia W

El Sobrante, CA

people helped8000
People Doing It 15

The Problem

Rotary International, with its 1.2 million members worldwide, has raised more than $800 MILLION since it first pledged to fight polio in 1985. Donor governments have also donated more than $3 BILLION to help eradicate polio, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just recently awarded Rotary a $255 million challenge grant (in addition to a prior $100 million grant) that Rotary has pledged to match in their (and our!) $200 Million Challenge, which will hopefully bring this grand total to $555 million or more! With these funds, Rotary International, along with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative--will seek to eliminate polio in the last four countries in the world with endemic polio: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Plan of Action

UC Berkeley Rotaract hasn't really raised much money so far besides what we've gotten the Happy Coins (spare change donated from each meeting), but throughout Purple Pinkie Week and even afterwards we plan to spread awareness about the need to eradicate polio and hopefully collect a lot of donations to help accomplish the task. We'll table and flyer for two days during PPWeek, and we'll make the most of it by making announcements about the effects of polio and what has been done to eliminate it.