Jahangir Moghul, one of the top personalities of Karachi, has hailed the recent initiatives of Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Karachi Commissioner, aimed at driving polio out of the country.
Having been elected as the District Governor for the Rotary year 2015-2016, Jahangir Moghul was referring to the Commissioner’s letter to the provincial police chief, Ghulam Hyder Jamali, to ensure that the 700-man special force for polio vaccinators’ security was formed and equipped at the earliest.
In a letter to the Inspector General Police (IGP ), the Commissioner has stressed the need for effective anti-polio efforts and highlighted the importance of the special security force, as directed by the Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, for successful proper eradication campaigns.
Jahangir Moghul, who heads Rotary’s District Polio Plus Committee, agreed with the Commissioner that the concerned authorities cannot afford to waste any more time in putting their acts together and the process has to be expedited.
He also praised the Commissioner for the measures he announced to be taken in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to make Karachi polio free.
Rotary had launched its PolioPlus program, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication, in 1985. Since then, Rotary and its partners have helped reduce the number of annual cases from 350,000 to fewer than 250 and remain committed until every child is safe from the disease.
Rotary’s focus has been on advocacy, fundraising, volunteer recruitment and awareness-building. The disease remains endemic in three countries, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, although other countries remain at risk for imported cases.
Rotary has contributed more than US$1.2 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 2 billion children in 122 countries.
In addition, Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by donor governments to contribute billions of dollars.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, was formed in 1988.
It is a public-private partnership including Rotary, the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and governments of the world.
More than one million Rotary members have been participating in the ‘This Close’ Campaign’ as it has a growing roster of public figures and celebrities participating in the public awareness campaign, including Bill Gates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Archie Panjabi, Jackie Chan, Shahid Khan Afridi and Jack Nicklaus. These ambassadors have bee helping educate the public about polio through public service announcements, social media and public appearances.
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