October 24 is a special day for every one of the 1.2 million Rotary Club members across the world.
It’s the day that marks the movement’s 40-year campaign to rid the world of polio.
Leicester Novus will mark the day — on Saturday — by again illuminating three places of worship in our city, Leicester Cathedral, the Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara in East Park Road and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Gipsy Road. Our thanks to the congregations at those three buildings for supporting us.
The picture below was taken last year at the mandir.
The colour purple is used because every one of the three billion children we have immunised so far has had their little finger dyed purple to indicate that they have received their dose.
This year, Novus president Sarita Shah has sourced these three videos.
Please click on the picture to hear Manesvee talk about her ‘hero’ mum, Shobhangi, who is a polio survivor.
Novus member Mark Esho contracted polio when he was a boy living in Newbold Verdon in Leicestershire. Please click on the picture below to hear his story… His friend Jig explains why he wants everyone to support Rotary’s campaign to eradicate polio from the world.
In the last video you can hear another survivor, Eva, from Slovakia, talk about her polio experience.
The Rotary Club of Leicester Novus has been supporting the End Polio Now campaign since the club was formed.
Under President Sarita, it continues to do so. The club is raising money to pay for the vaccines. Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease.
If you would like us to help fulfil the dreams of Shobhangi, Mark, Jig and Eva, please hit the Contact Us button at the top of each page on this website.
You can also learn more about End Polio Now by visiting https://www.rotary.org/en/our-causes/ending-polio
Last edited: 21:30 on Thursday 22.10.2020
