Loyalist Rotaract works to end polio worldwide

By John Moodie

Mahoganie Hines, a first year nursing student at Loyalist College, sees herself traveling to India someday. Not as a tourist but as a volunteer.

Hines is a socially conscious students and she is specifically concerned with the eradication of polio. Hines is also the International Director of Loyalist College Rotaract club.

“We want to show that students have a voice and have the opportunity to participate in something that is bigger than themselves,” said Hines.

This Thursday the Rotaract Club and the Rotary Club of Quinte hosted a “End Polio Now” campaign presentation at Loyalist College.

The guest speaker was former Rotary Club District Governor Bob Wallace, who had recently spent some time volunteering in Delhi, India.

During his presentation Wallace spoke about the people he met who were affected by polio

Polio is a disease that attacks the spinal cord and brainstem causing muscle to weaken, paralysis and often deformity.

In 1993 there were 200,00 cases of polio in India per year. Since 2011 there have been no reported cases.

“We were there to try to prevent this from happening again,” said Wallace.

At the event, Steve Lynch president of Quinte Rotary Sunrise, presented Prince Edward-Hastings MP Daryl Kramp and Northumberland-Quinte West MP Rick Norlock with plaques thanking the federal government for support in the fight against polio.

On September of 2012, Julian Fantino, minister of International Cooperation, announced the Pennies for Polio initiative to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Pennies for Polio initiative donates $1 from the Canadian Federal Government for each dollar raised by the Rotary Club of Canada.

According to a 2012 World Health Organization report there are three countries were polio remains a problem: Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.