September 25, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Nigeria declared polio-free, removed from endemic list

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on 25 September that Nigeria is now polio-free and has been officially removed from the list of countries where polio is endemic. It’s been 14 months since any cases of polio caused by the wild virus have been detected there.
With Nigeria’s historic achievement, polio remains endemic in only two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. That means transmission of the virus has never been stopped there.
Nigeria was the last country in Africa where polio was endemic. The continent celebrated its own first full year without the disease on 11 August. Once…

September 23, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Save the date: 23 October, Rotary’s World Polio Day event

Celebrate our remarkable progress toward a polio-free world with the Rotary World Polio Day event, streamed live from New York City on 23 October.
Co-hosted by UNICEF, the event will highlight recent milestones: In July, Nigeria marked one year without a case of polio caused by the wild poliovirus, and in August, the entire African continent celebrated one year without a case. Jeffrey Kluger, health and science editor at Time magazine, will serve as moderator, joining other health experts, including UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and polio ambassadors.
The event, which drew 23,000…

September 21, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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What peace means to me

People and nations worldwide will observe the International Day of Peace on 21 September, the date designated by the United Nations in 2001 “to be observed as a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.”
That commitment to peace is directly linked to goals pursued by Rotary members since The Rotary Foundation’s mission to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace was proclaimed in 1917.
To fulfill that mission, Rotary conducts global forums, hosts international peace symposiums, continues its decades-long collaboration with the UN, and promotes initiatives such as the Rotarian Action…

September 17, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Convention: Seoul searching

From the October 2015 issue of The Rotarian
As the world hurtles down the path of modernization, many cultures resist the speed of change. Korea embraces it, yet retains a balance many of us worry we’re losing. In Seoul, business-suited fathers patiently escort their children to school. Multigenerational families pause by ponds and brilliant bursts of wild azalea. Each day before dawn, Buddhist monks throughout the land sound fish- and cloud-shaped drums to wake all creatures, from sea to sky. It is a ritual thousands of years old, and in Korea, this rhythm of tradition infuses everything….

September 17, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Polio eradication campaign soars from new heights

From the October 2015 issue of The Rotarian
Ken Hutt is running toward the edge of a cliff, pounding across the snow in thin freezing air, a full pack of gear strapped to his back. As if attached to an invisible string, he rises a few feet off the ground and drops back down. A few more strides and he is aloft again. Then he flies off the face of the world’s sixth-highest mountain.
Hutt, a member of the Rotary Club of Berry, Australia, has just paraglided off Cho Oyu, 12 miles west of Mount Everest.
The flight was both the fulfillment of his longtime dream to climb an “eight-thousander” – what…

August 20, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Meet our polio partners

From the September 2015 issue of The Rotarian
Eradicating polio is a complex job. Since 1988, we’ve collaborated with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF to tackle the disease through our Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Here’s how our roles break down.
The Strategist: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) coordinates the management and administration of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and provides technical and operational support to ministries of health in countries around the world. WHO is responsible for monitoring…

July 24, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Nigeria sees no wild polio cases for one year

Today marks one year since Nigeria last reported a polio case caused by wild poliovirus, putting the country on the brink of eradicating the paralyzing disease.
The last case was reported on 24 July 2014 in the northern state of Kano. If no cases are reported in the coming weeks, the World Health Organization is expected to remove Nigeria from the list of countries where polio is endemic, leaving just two: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Nigeria is the last polio-endemic country in Africa. The continent is poised to reach its own first full year without any illness from the virus on 11 August.
“…

July 17, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Australian students take opportunity by the horns

The rules of the Shaftesbury Rodeo Academy are simple: no school, no rodeo. It’s a message that teenagers who attend school at Bisley Farm, most of whom have never attended any school regularly, take seriously. Because come Friday night, these aspiring rodeo heroes want to join their friends to ride bulls for a heart-stopping eight seconds, if they last that long.
The school in rural Queensland, Australia, also teaches the boys, who are of the Wakka Wakka Aboriginal people, basic academics and farming skills, including how to care for crops and livestock. It’s a fairly common form of…

June 8, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Africa on brink of polio eradication

Nigeria and the whole continent of Africa is on the cusp of being polio free, Dr. Hamid Jafari told audience members at the Rotary Convention on 8 June in São Paulo, Brazil.
Between 2013 and 2014, the reported cases of polio dropped from 53 to just six in Nigeria. Even more encouraging, said Jafari, is that the last case of polio in Nigeria was reported in July of last year and the last case in all of Africa was reported in Somalia in August.
“With a year of no polio cases in Nigeria tantalizingly close, and no cases in Somalia since August, the tireless work of so many people across the…

June 8, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Alumni Award Winner Helps Others Overcome Mental Illness, Speaks at Rotary Convention

Dr. Geetha Jayaram has dedicated her life to helping people in her native India and the United States overcome the torment of severe depression, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, and other mental illnesses.
Jayaram is a psychiatrist and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Her work expanding access to mental health services is much needed. Depression affects at least 350 million people and is the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
“In India, there is no mental…