http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVPI3mLLsU

The band s debut album, Très Très Fort, won the 2009 Womex Award for international music. French filmmakers Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barrett decided to create a documentary on the band after falling in love with its music when they were in Kinshasa in 2004, working on a movie about the city s music scene. The film Benda Bilili! premiered 13 May during the festival.

Band members have also joined other musicians across Africa in lending their voices to the final push to rid the continent of polio. Through the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign, a soccer ball signed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and a growing number of public figures has been making its way through the continent to raise awareness for polio eradication before traveling to the RI Convention in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Follow the ball s progress on our interactive map <http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/KickPoliooutofAfricaMap.aspx> .

Show your support by signing a virtual ball online.
<http://www.kickpoliooutofafrica.org/>

"Of course we re happy to be part of the campaign. After all, we re handicapped by polio, and we are the first group to sing about polio, so naturally we re ready to help," said bandleader Ricky Likabu. "Our song `Polio is simply to implore parents to take their children to health clinics to be vaccinated, as the WHO [World Health Organization] recommends. Parents are responsible for their children, and they need to know how to avoid diseases."

Staff Benda Bilili s European tour began in April. The band will stop in Greece, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in June, before performing 5 July at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Read more about the band in the June issue of The Rotarian . <http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/TheRotarian/Pages/UF_polioband.aspx>

Download audio, see video, and order music from the band s website at Crammed Discs.  <http://www.crammed.be/index.php?id=34&art_id=146>

See a YouTube video of the band s hit song "Polio." <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzCUcO_d1qI&feature=related>

Source : Rotary International News / Courtesy : eFlash_Rotary

Member nations of the WHO, the United Nations health body, approved the plan at an annual meeting in Geneva. It calls for spending $2.6 billion over the next three years on running polio vaccination programs that will focus on Nigeria, India and several other countries world-wide where polio remains most deeply rooted.

Delegates at the meeting highlighted the challenge now: The program is still short $1.3 billion as the global economic slump strains the coffers of the U.S., U.K. and other donors.

"Cash is kind of scarce and there are a lot of competing priorities," said Steve Cochi, senior adviser at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the main sponsors of the polio program, in an interview. Dr. Cochi didn t attend the Geneva meeting, called the World Health Assembly.

The new plan comes after a year of setbacks for the polio-eradication program, which WHO, Rotary International, Unicef and others have waged for 22 years, cutting down the number of cases globally to under 1,600, from 350,000 in 1988. Last year, it succeeded in reducing polio in Nigeria, which has been a hot spot for the disease.

Pockets of Resistance

View Interactive

• More photos and interactive graphics

The program has been criticized over the years, however, for missed deadlines as the disease eludes eradication, raising questions among donor nations over whether they should continue to provide funding. If the effort fails to make significant gains under the latest timeline, donors and polio experts say, funding could dry up.

Outbreaks in Africa last year highlighted how hard it remains to kill off a disease that spreads nearly silently. Polio shows effects—usually paralysis—in just one of every 200 people that it infects.

On Thursday, the WHO said it has recorded 202 polio cases world-wide in 2010, down from the 436 cases in the same period last year. Half of this year s cases were in Tajikistan, which had been polio-free since 1998. Fears that it could spread further have sparked vaccination campaigns in neighboring counties, including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Dr. Cochi said he expects the cases in Tajikistan could grow to between 200 and 300 before polio is fully controlled there.

The polio funding challenges come as other global health programs struggle to raise the money they need to continue in force. On June 18, the WHO will host a meeting in Geneva with current and potential polio donors, including China, Russia and Brazil, according to Sona Bari, spokeswoman for the polio-eradication initiative at the WHO.

Also Friday, the assembly adopted a resolution to rein in pneumonia, which it said kills over 1.6 million children a year. It called for programs to limit the disease by encouraging breastfeeding and promoting hand washing and vaccinations. The resolution comes as health groups are introducing a new vaccine for preventing Pneumococcal disease, which causes pneumonia.

Corrections & Amplifications:

The polio virus shows effects in one of every 200 people it infects. An earlier version of this article said it shows effects in 200 people it infects.

 

Billionaire Bill Gates s Quest to Eradicate Polio

7:16

Nigeria is ground zero for the reemergence of polio. Now the country is making surprising headway against the crippling disease, in part thanks to an unlikely meeting of two leaders: Microsoft mogul Bill Gates and the Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Nigeria s 70 million Muslims. WSJ s Rob Guth reports.

To read the full article, please go to:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189593.php

Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

ESCONDIDO— Jack Campbell didn’t celebrate his sixth birthday with a party like most kids do. Instead, polio confined him to an iron lung for a month at Los Angeles County Hospital.

That was before Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in 1955. Since then, many thought the virus would become a thing of the past. They were wrong.

Campbell, 67, makes it his job to educate people regarding the ongoing threat of polio and once played a critical role in helping fund a National Immunization Day in Eritrea, Africa.

Polio, a viral disease that impairs the nervous system and can cause paralysis, struck one morning when Campbell had trouble getting out of bed. “I was too weak to stand or sit,” he said.

Campbell, who lives in Escondido, has been in a wheelchair ever since. As with most polio survivors, Campbell’s muscles have grown weaker as the years wear on.

“Cases of polio still occur in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, with occasional cases being exported from those countries to others,” he said.

Over the years, polio epidemics have dropped. Last year, the reported number was 1,660.

“The great fear is that as people begin to believe that the disease no longer exists, they then decline to have their children immunized, and the number of cases go back up,” he said.

In 1998, Campbell reached a milestone. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his virus, and with it came a passion for fundraising to fight polio.

Before Campbell joined the Rotary Club of Escondido, he and his wife, Jill, stumbled upon a 10-year-old Rotary booklet about eliminating polio in the world. In 1987, Rotary International had launched a campaign to raise $120 million to fight the disease.

“It said Rotary could buy and distribute vaccines for eight children for one dollar,” Campbell said. “We thought about donating $12,500 to vaccinate 100,000 kids.”

He mailed a letter to the Escondido Rotary, challenging the club to match his amount so 200,000 children in impoverished countries could be helped.

The Rotary handed the letter to its past president, Dr. Nick Tsoulas. He met with the Campbells and, at the Rotary’s request, the couple upped the ante to $20,000.

A total of $140,000 was raised after dozens of other district Rotary clubs participated. In 1999, the San Diego District Rotary used the money to sponsor a National Immunization Day.

“They selected the country of Eritrea, because they had worked on other projects there before, and its size was small enough that our funds would cover it,” Campbell said.

In eight days, 389,000 children were vaccinated. Rotary International and the World Health Organization deposited the remaining money in a Polio Plus account. As donations filter in, the money is still used to send medical teams to countries with outbreaks.

Campbell remains an advocate for fighting polio. In October, he will serve as honorary chairman at the Annual Rotary District Conference in San Diego, for which ending polio is the theme.

Campbell pointed out that the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that if polio’s spread was stopped for six consecutive months, the virus could be eradicated.

“On the other hand, if we give up on getting that last 1 percent, then polio could come back like it was in the 1980s, when there were over a million cases and thousands of deaths every year,” he said. “I want to see polio dead before I am.”

Christina Macone-Greene is a freelance writer from Fallbrook.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/11/polio-survivor-devoted-immunizing-and-educating/

Judy Chandler Smith, Huntsville, Alabama 

The summer of 1945 struck fear in every mother s heart in Florence, Alabama, including mine. I wasn t allowed out of the house except to go to Sunday school and church. 

Everything was going as planned for the summer, or so my parents thought. My baby sister was due to arrive on or about August 23rd and I was so excited. You see, I had been praying for a baby sister for quite sometime. We had already named her Melinda Allison Chandler. Allison was to honor Charles Allison Simpson, my mother s father. However, I put a real jinx into my parents’ plan when on July 4, 1945, my mother found me screaming with a high fever and curled up into a fetal position. 

My father had gone fishing and there was no way to get in touch with him. So I cried, and Mother rocked me until Daddy came home. Upon seeing me, he scooped me up, ran to the car and straight to the only hospital we flew, with my mother.  

Upon arrival, the nurses took me from Daddy s arms and strapped me to a gurney. Up the elevator and into an operating room we went. Although I was only four and a half years old, I can still tell you what it felt like to be tied down and have a spinal tap with nothing to deaden the area prior to starting the procedure I can still recall the unbelievable pain. 

The test came back POSITIVE - I had polio. I was then put in a large room with children with varying degrees of the disease; some in iron lungs, some in regular hospital beds, and some like me in baby beds. I was so humiliated having to sleep in a baby bed, because my parents had long since moved my baby bed into the nursery awaiting the arrival of my sister. I was to be a big sister and all of a sudden I was a baby again. 

The swish, swish of the iron lung still rings in my ears to this day. I had to lie flat on my back, with no pillow, and with my feet up against the foot board of the bed. I was put in diapers along with other children my age because one just wet oneself and had to lie there soiled as there were not enough nurses to take us to the rest rooms. 

My neck, back, left leg, and both ankles were affected. But, I was lucky enough to have a therapist to exercise my arms and legs twice a day. I remember her smiling and making me laugh; we played games like peek-a-boo and “I spy.”  

Our meals were served in the hall on solid doors placed on concrete blocks, while children sat on the floor. We were taken to and from meals stacked in wheelchairs. Scrambled eggs were served every morning for breakfast. They tasted horrible. To this day I heave when I smell them.  

One day, one of the nurses put me in a wheelchair, along with several of the other children and took us to a whirlpool tub. When I tried to stand up, I collapsed. I weighed less than thirty pounds and had become weaker and weaker as the days went by.  

The Sister Kenny method was also used on me. Heated woolen pieces were placed in a steamer and taken out with tongs and wrapped around my arms, back, and legs. A white sheet enclosed the woolen wraps.  

I was petrified of the nurses and certainly wasn t going to ask any questions for fear of having something horrible happen to me again, like another spinal tap. 

No toys were allowed to pass to or from the hospital. I was so scared that I never looked into the sack attached to the headboard of the bed until the day I was being released from the hospital to find it full of toys.  

One day, Mother and Daddy brought me a doll. I named her Francis. She had blond hair and was wearing a pink dress and coat and black patent shoes and had a purse to match.  

I finally had something that I could hold and call my own. I talked to Francis making up all kinds of stories about what we would do whenever I was allowed to leave the hospital. My imagination went wild. I would pretend to be riding in a gray convertible. The man across the street from where I lived had one, and on Sundays he would take us for a ride. It was so much fun to ride down West Bluff Street in Florence, Alabama, with the wind blowing through my hair. During this time I couldn t touch or feel my parents’ arms around me. There was no one to say I love you or kiss me good night. I just remember a mean old nurse who stripped me of my clothes, put me in diapers, and left me all day to lie in my own waste.  

Today, on days when it isn t raining, I like to take my convertible out for a top-down drive. The feel of the wind rushing through my hair makes me feel rejuvenated and alive, the same as it did when I was a child.  

Finally, the day came when I was going to get to go home. I slipped Francis to Mother and Daddy that morning, with the instructions to take her home with them, and then come back for me that afternoon. Years later, my father told me that they drove immediately across the river and threw her overboard. They then raced to the toy store and bought another doll just like Francis to have waiting for me when I got home. The chance of the polio germ being brought home from the hospital with me and giving it to the new baby was more than they could stand.  

One of my father s daily routines was to place me in a tub of hot water. He was instructed to have it reach 107 degrees, so the heat would help my muscles. The tears are rolling down my cheeks tonight as I write this, as they did my fathers every time he placed me in the tub, saying, “Sugar, I m so sorry but I have to do this.”  

I was one of the very fortunate children. I made a full recovery. The reason I have taken the time to write this story is to urge all mothers to vaccinate their children against this dreaded disease. Their child may not be as lucky as I. 

In a few places in the world, polio strikes children everyday, and I wouldn t want any child to go through what I went through the summer of ‘45 in Florence, Alabama. God saved me, will he save your child? 

2300 Woodcliff Rd SE

Huntsville, AL 35801-1472

My Polio Experience Memories

Judy Chandler Smith, Huntsville, Alabama 

The summer of 1945 struck fear in every mother s heart in Florence, Alabama, including mine. I wasn t allowed out of the house except to go to Sunday school and church. 

Everything was going as planned for the summer, or so my parents thought. My baby sister was due to arrive on or about August 23rd and I was so excited. You see, I had been praying for a baby sister for quite sometime. We had already named her Melinda Allison Chandler. Allison was to honor Charles Allison Simpson, my mother s father. However, I put a real jinx into my parents’ plan when on July 4, 1945, my mother found me screaming with a high fever and curled up into a fetal position. 

My father had gone fishing and there was no way to get in touch with him. So I cried, and Mother rocked me until Daddy came home. Upon seeing me, he scooped me up, ran to the car and straight to the only hospital we flew, with my mother.  

Upon arrival, the nurses took me from Daddy s arms and strapped me to a gurney. Up the elevator and into an operating room we went. Although I was only four and a half years old, I can still tell you what it felt like to be tied down and have a spinal tap with nothing to deaden the area prior to starting the procedure I can still recall the unbelievable pain. 

The test came back POSITIVE - I had polio. I was then put in a large room with children with varying degrees of the disease; some in iron lungs, some in regular hospital beds, and some like me in baby beds. I was so humiliated having to sleep in a baby bed, because my parents had long since moved my baby bed into the nursery awaiting the arrival of my sister. I was to be a big sister and all of a sudden I was a baby again. 

The swish, swish of the iron lung still rings in my ears to this day. I had to lie flat on my back, with no pillow, and with my feet up against the foot board of the bed. I was put in diapers along with other children my age because one just wet oneself and had to lie there soiled as there were not enough nurses to take us to the rest rooms. 

My neck, back, left leg, and both ankles were affected. But, I was lucky enough to have a therapist to exercise my arms and legs twice a day. I remember her smiling and making me laugh; we played games like peek-a-boo and “I spy.”  

Our meals were served in the hall on solid doors placed on concrete blocks, while children sat on the floor. We were taken to and from meals stacked in wheelchairs. Scrambled eggs were served every morning for breakfast. They tasted horrible. To this day I heave when I smell them.  

One day, one of the nurses put me in a wheelchair, along with several of the other children and took us to a whirlpool tub. When I tried to stand up, I collapsed. I weighed less than thirty pounds and had become weaker and weaker as the days went by.  

The Sister Kenny method was also used on me. Heated woolen pieces were placed in a steamer and taken out with tongs and wrapped around my arms, back, and legs. A white sheet enclosed the woolen wraps.  

I was petrified of the nurses and certainly wasn t going to ask any questions for fear of having something horrible happen to me again, like another spinal tap. 

No toys were allowed to pass to or from the hospital. I was so scared that I never looked into the sack attached to the headboard of the bed until the day I was being released from the hospital to find it full of toys.  

One day, Mother and Daddy brought me a doll. I named her Francis. She had blond hair and was wearing a pink dress and coat and black patent shoes and had a purse to match.  

I finally had something that I could hold and call my own. I talked to Francis making up all kinds of stories about what we would do whenever I was allowed to leave the hospital. My imagination went wild. I would pretend to be riding in a gray convertible. The man across the street from where I lived had one, and on Sundays he would take us for a ride. It was so much fun to ride down West Bluff Street in Florence, Alabama, with the wind blowing through my hair. During this time I couldn t touch or feel my parents’ arms around me. There was no one to say I love you or kiss me good night. I just remember a mean old nurse who stripped me of my clothes, put me in diapers, and left me all day to lie in my own waste.  

Today, on days when it isn t raining, I like to take my convertible out for a top-down drive. The feel of the wind rushing through my hair makes me feel rejuvenated and alive, the same as it did when I was a child.  

Finally, the day came when I was going to get to go home. I slipped Francis to Mother and Daddy that morning, with the instructions to take her home with them, and then come back for me that afternoon. Years later, my father told me that they drove immediately across the river and threw her overboard. They then raced to the toy store and bought another doll just like Francis to have waiting for me when I got home. The chance of the polio germ being brought home from the hospital with me and giving it to the new baby was more than they could stand.  

One of my father s daily routines was to place me in a tub of hot water. He was instructed to have it reach 107 degrees, so the heat would help my muscles. The tears are rolling down my cheeks tonight as I write this, as they did my fathers every time he placed me in the tub, saying, “Sugar, I m so sorry but I have to do this.”  

I was one of the very fortunate children. I made a full recovery. The reason I have taken the time to write this story is to urge all mothers to vaccinate their children against this dreaded disease. Their child may not be as lucky as I. 

In a few places in the world, polio strikes children everyday, and I wouldn t want any child to go through what I went through the summer of ‘45 in Florence, Alabama. God saved me, will he save your child? 

2300 Woodcliff Rd SE

Huntsville, AL 35801-1472

Dr. Bruce Aylward, director of the initiative at the World Health
Organization, said 2009 was a watershed year in the fight against polio.
For the first time, eradication workers discovered a chink in the armor
of the disease "that has been tormenting mankind for thousands of
years," he said.

"Our tactics are better, the tools are better, and our support is
stronger than ever," Aylward told regional Rotary Foundation
coordinators (RRFCs) 18 March during a training event in Chicago. "You will be the Rotarians at the front in pushing
forward this new strategy. I need you to make sure every Rotary club
knows about this, because we will not get the job done without Rotary
leading the charge."

The new strategic plan for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
involves mobilizing massive resources to reach more children in the
areas where the virus remains endemic. For instance, a survey in the two
endemic states of India, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, identified thousands
of homes and children who had not been reached by health workers. The
two states have been a challenge because of high population densities in
areas of extreme poverty, where poor sanitation can contribute to the
spread of the virus.

Support from leaders

Another key element of the new strategy focuses on eliciting the support
of political and traditional leaders, a move that is seen as critical to
eradicating the disease in the remaining four endemic countries:
Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Aylward said Rotary has led
the charge to gain the leaders backing. International PolioPlus
Committee Chair Robert S. Scott visited the president of Pakistan in
October to present him with a Polio Eradication Champion Award,
recognizing his contributions toward a polio-free world. Bill Gates
visited India in November and met with Rotary leaders there to line up
the support of the state governors.

Rotarians have had a hand in securing letters from Taliban and NATO
forces encouraging full cooperation with immunization efforts in
Afghanistan. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told attendees
at the 2009 RI Convention in Birmingham, England, that he d work for
Days of Tranquility in conflict areas to remove impediments to
immunizations.

To address the immediate financial needs of mass vaccination campaigns,
The Rotary Foundation expedited US$30 million in funding for a
synchronized immunization drive 6-8 March, supported by leaders in 19
countries across Central and West Africa. Nine of the countries have had
cases of polio within the last six months; the disease spread from
Nigeria, where the virus has dug in its heels. A second drive is planned
for 24 April, and the countries with active outbreaks of polio will
receive a third sweep.

The new tool Aylward praised is the bivalent oral polio vaccine, first
used in Afghanistan in December and since employed during immunization
days in Nigeria and Pakistan. The bivalent vaccine has an advantage over
monovalent vaccines because it is effective against both remaining types
of wild poliovirus, types 1 and 3 -- type 2 has already been eradicated
-- and was proved in clinical trials last year to be almost as effective
as the monovalent vaccine.

The combination of new tactics and tools has been amazingly effective,
Aylward said. In 2009, Nigeria had 388 cases of polio in 24 states. So
far this year, there has been only one case in one state. In India, type
1 has been reduced to just one genetic lineage.

US$200 Million Challenge

John F. Germ, vice chair of The Rotary Foundation Trustees and chair of
the Rotary s US$200 Million Challenge Committee, told the RRFCs that
Rotarians have raised $115.6 million toward the challenge, and stressed
that the fundraising effort is as important as ever. "The polio
eradication campaign is the largest public health campaign the world has
ever seen. We can do it, we must do it, because we have promised the
children of the world that we would do it."

Germ said Foundation alumni and 11 Rotary fellowships have responded to
the invitation to participate in the challenge, with alumni contributing
$260,000. Interact clubs have raised $70,000, and Rotaract clubs
$41,000.

Penny LeGate, an independent producer and freelance journalist who spoke
at the 2010 International Assembly in January, shared personal stories
from her participation in immunization drives in Ethiopia and India.

"I just can t explain the feeling I have when I hold that baby
in my arms and I know that child will not get polio," LeGate said.
She also shared the heartbreak of finding a girl, Minakshi, in India who
had contracted polio. Volunteers had to explain to the girl s mother
that they did not have any medicine that could cure her.

LeGate encouraged the RRFCs to consider taking part in an immunization
drive, adding that she hoped the drives would not be needed much longer
as progress toward polio eradication continued. "You will see
firsthand why eradication is the very heart and soul of Rotary."

Source : Rotary International News / Courtesy : eFlash_Rotary

Nine of the countries -- Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Chad, Guinea, Liberia,
Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra Leone -- are considered to have
active outbreaks of polio (i.e., cases within the last six months).

The campaign kicked off on 6 March in these countries as well as in
Benin, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea-Bissau, and Nigeria. Cote d Ivoire, Niger, and Togo will join at
a later date due to political transitions or elections.

This complex logistical operation is largely made possible by US$30
million in funding released by Rotary International.

The chair of Rotary s Africa Regional PolioPlus Committee, Ambroise
Tshimbalanga-Kasongo, said: "We at Rotary are proud to have provided the
funding necessary for the March rounds, and we call on others to play
their part in making Africa polio-free by providing funding necessary
for more high-coverage campaigns."

More resources

* Follow the immunizations with an interactive Google map
<http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111706911275999\
519445.0004631fe8666a05acdea&z=4> * Watch a video of UNICEF
Goodwill Ambassador and polio survivor Mia Farrow in Chad
<http://www.twitvid.com/EB2D9> * Learn more about Rotary s work in
polio eradication
<http://www.rotary.org/en/ServiceAndFellowship/Polio/Pages/ridefault.asp\
x>

Source : Rotary International News / Courtesy : eFlash_Rotary

By Kirk Johnson, published February 2, 2010 in the NY Times website.

Tells the story of several polio survivors and what their life is like now.  Unfortuntely, because of their copyright permissions, we cannot reprint the article on our site, but we can give you the link to read the entire story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/health/03polio.html#

Dissenting justice Miriam Naor said that while the law was based on the state obligating itself to compensate the victims, the obligation did not apply to anything before it came into existence

..... every child must be made aware,

every child must be made to care.

Care enough for his fellow man

to give all the love that he can. 

I pray my wish will come true

for this child and your child too.

He’ll see the day of glory,

see the day when men of goodwill

live in peace, live in peace, once again.

Peace on Earth. Can it be.

Can it be. 
 
 

PEACE ON EARTH

Humanity is simply one force – all of us, together.