The Rotary Club of Winneba joined the Ghana Health Service immunize children against Polio under the age of 5 years in Ansaful, Sankor and Dwoma villages near Winneba in the Central Region.
As part of activities earmarked by The Ghana Health Service (GHS), a nationwide campaign to vaccinate children under five years against the polio virus resumed as part of its efforts at responding to the outbreak of the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus (VDPV) from July. The club took part in both exercises, which targeted about 4.6 million children.
This forms part of activities of the club earmarked for this Rotary Year. Prior to the Polio immunization, The Rotary Club of Winneba, on the 21st of July, 2020 visited the Akosua Village, a suburb in Winneba and donated 200 pieces of Rotary branded nose masks to the residents of the community.
The community members were first educated on COVID-19 safety protocols as well as the proper usage of the masks. Besides, the residents were advised to wear the masks at all times- especially in the midst of others.
The community members were very grateful and wished the club well. Following this donation was another 100 pieces of the branded masks donated to the Rafiki Children’s Home of the Methodist Church in Winneba.
The Very Reverend Dr Nana Abakah of the Methodist Church received the masks on behalf of the Children’s Home and expressed his appreciation to the Club.
The club also took advantage of the distribution exercise, to embark on membership drive. In this regard, 100 pieces of the branded nose masks were also distributed to some of the people who were informed about to the Club’s, community service and were invited to fellowship with them.
Rotary’s Involvement
Over the years, Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Their goal was achieved this year when Africa was declared polio free which was celebrated at an event held in Ashaiman recently.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, they’ve reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since their first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
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. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
At the end of the immunization exercise, the President of the club, Emenefa Agbosu advised all parents to allow their children under five years to partake in any future immunization exercise since it served as a preventive measure.
Prior to the exercise, while addressing the press, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said the exercise was scheduled from September 10 to October 11, this year.
The first round started in March this year, but was halted due to the ramifications of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
He further explained that the eradication of all forms of polio required that almost the entire population must be vaccinated.
He further explained that, some 2.4 million children born between January 2016 and February 2018, in particular, were naive to the polio type two virus due to some global operational challenges in a switch in vaccine during that period.
The formation of the Rotary Club of Winneba is a brainchild of the Rotary club of Accra Labone. The Rotary club of Winneba’s journey as a club began on 20th December, 2016 with the first international session for the club’s charter at the Windy Lodge.
The club became the 46th Charter Club of Ghana on 22nd September, 2017 with a ceremony at the Windy Lodge, Winneba on 16th December, 2017 with a membership of thirty-three. Four years down the line, the club has been involved in several projects including, a signage at the Winneba Junction and making zebra crossing at the main entrance of North Campus of the University of Education, Winneba, among others.
