By Les Sheppard | Community Service Chairman, Billericay Rotary Club
Many thanks to everyone who participated in Billericay Rotary Club's “END POLIO NOW Challenge 2025” microproject, in aid of eradicating Polio from the world. And special thanks if you made your donation via GlobalGiving on 'Giving Tuesday' (2nd December 2025), as we earned a 16.4% bonus on top of your donations on that day.
This year, thanks to your generosity, we raised an amazing £3,812. This total was double-matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, resulting in an £11,436 contribution to Rotary's 'End Polio Now' campaign. Converting this to actual vaccine shots (using UNICEF's typical 2026 quoted cost of $0.13 per dose) means that, thanks to your donations, over 115,000 children can be vaccinated.
So a big thank-you, not only to you, but also to our Government's Gift Aid scheme, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation double-match funding and to GlobalGiving's $500,000 “Giving Tuesday” Bonus Fund that enabled us to reach this impressive total.
Polio remains endemic in just two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan. The good news is that the number of confirmed Wild Poliovirus cases decreased from 99 in 2024 to 52 in 2025 (31 in Pakistan and 21 in Afghanistan). Furthermore, in the first 3 months of 2026 only 2 cases have been reported (1 in each country), which is encouraging. The fight continues!
We do hope you had a great Christmas and, once again, thank you so much for your support.
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