Helping Rotary make history - contact your local Rotary club to get involved

When Rotary promised to free the world's children of this disabling and life threatening poliovirus back in 1985 there were more than 125 countries where polio was endemic and almost 1,000 children a day were infected with it.

Today the number of wild poliovirus cases has declined by more than 99% and transmission of the indigenous poliovirus has been interrupted in all but three countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria).

Today more than 18 million poeople who would otherwise have been paralysed are walking today because of Rotary and its partners.

Rotarians have contributed $1.9 billion dollars. Of even greater significance has been the huge volunteer army that has been mobilised by Rotary International. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers at the local level are providing support at clinics or mobilising their communities for immunisation or polio eradication activities. More than one million Rotarians worldwide have contributed towards the success of the polio eradication effort to date.

We need everyone's help to reach the finish line. To do so there are still many obstacles being overcome on a daily basis. Getting to zero cases and zero positive samples in the water and sewage will take even more perseverance, patience and money. We all need to step up and redouble our commitment to ending polio for good.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments with five core partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.

BACKGROUND to Rotary Club of Guernsey's End Polio Now Shop

We are here to help by providing End Polio Now branded merchandise to Rotary clubs and others. We would love to have suggestions from you for other products and improvements to the website at any time by sending us a contact form message or email us at epnguernsey@me.com.

This initiative of selling End Polio Now products was started back in 2009 by Rotarian Jannine Birtwistle from the Rotary Club of Guernsey in Rotary District 1110 (Hampshire, parts of Dorset and Wiltshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands). Jannine was District 1110 Polio Officer and wanted to make a variety of products available for Clubs to use to help them promote the End Polio Now campaign, raise the profile of Rotary and vitally to assist with fund raising. Very little was available so, with the support of her husband Paul, they had several products made to sell within her own District.

News of these products quickly spread across Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland and many clubs placed orders from outside the District. Growing demand has resulted in being asked to make the products more widely and easily available and thus this global website was launched. That was back in 2009 and we are grateful for the help we have had throughout from Rotarian Nigel Barnfield from Bishop's Waltham Rotary and in more recent years from Carol Whiteley and Malcolm Hallewell from Burntwood & District Rotary.

This venture is operated through a Guernsey company limited by guarantee run for the Rotary Club of Guernsey's Benevolent Fund. The objects of the company require all profits to go to The Rotary Foundation's End Polio Now campaign or similar Rotary initiative. The company name is End Polio Now Shop Guernsey LBG and it is incorporated in Guernsey, Company Number 51922. It's registered office is Gainsborough Lodge, Rue du Gains, St Pierre du Bois, Guernsey, GY7 9BS. It is a Guernsey Registered Charity, number CH326.

Particular thanks go to:

Stuart Lane

A professional photographer based in Bournemouth, England provided the conference photography for the RIBI national conference at the BIC 2010. Whilst doing the photography, he was so moved by the reports about the End Polio Now campaign he immediately volunteered his services to Jannine to help in any way he could. By pulling on his previous experience as an IT and management consultant, he modelled the business processes for a web based shop for global sales and appealed to his friend and web designer Severyn to build a web-page with a database back-end to handle the new business. He has also done a fantastic job with the product images on our website.

Rich Wainwright

A humanitarian photo-journalist who visited India in 2009 to take part in a National Immunisation Day and to photographically record the event. Rich has allowed us to use any or all of his work on this website.

See more of Rich's work at www.richwainwright.com

Sevy Probierz

Has worked tirelessly to put this website together and to keep it up to date. It is a completely bespoke solution that handles our stock levels, complex pricing rules, automatic orders to our suppliers and has an order tracking system. Sevy is highly recommended to any Rotarian for his ability to produce sophisticated web solutions that involve an integrated database. He has also been very patient in making all the changes we have asked for over the years and continues to be a tremendous support volunteering his time entirely free of charge.

R A Rossborough (Guernsey) Limited

Who have been so helpful in finding the necessary insurance we needed to be able to proceed with this website. Without their time and efforts we would not have been able to proceed. Extra thanks too for not only waiving their own fees but also negotiating with the insurers on our behalf.

www.rossborough.co.uk

Charlie Worsley

of business management & consultants limited for his stirling efforts in making sure our financial records are kept in order.