In 1979Rotary clubs take on a project to buy and help deliver polio vaccine to more than six million children in the Philippines.
1985 Rotary International launches PolioPlus, the first and largest internationally coordinated private-sector support of a public health initiative, with an initial pledge of US$120 million.
1988Rotarians raise US$247 million for PolioPlus, more than double their fundraising goal of $120 million. The World Health Assembly passes a resolution to eradicate polio, setting up the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. More than 125 countries are polio-endemic.
Many More milestones occurred but bringing us almost to our goal
2012India surpasses an entire year without a recorded case of polio, and is taken off the polio endemic list. Only three countries remain polio endemic. Rotary surpasses its $200 Million Challenge fundraising goal more than five months earlier than planned.
Rotary clubs in Great Britain and Ireland have donated over £20 million (€24 million) to End Polio Now.
The eradication of polio when completed will be one of the most significant achievements in public health since the eradication of smallpox.
Our efforts to eradicate polio have been described as one of the finest humanitarian projects the world has ever known and Rotary has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.