Since 1985, Rotary's key humanitarian priority has been to rid the world of Polio. At that time there were over 1000 polio cases a day in 125 countries, paralysing and even killing children. Today, the number of cases is down by 99.9%. Because of the efforts of Rotary, and our partners, nearly 19 million people who would otherwise have been paralysed are walking and more than 1.5 million people are alive who would otherwise have died. A recent success has been the eradication of the wild polio virus from the continent of Africa. Despite there only being a handful of cases left in the world, the work must continue. Over 400 million children still have to receive their polio vaccinations every single year in more than 50 countries. Failure to fully eradicate polio could result in as many as 200,000 new cases worldwide every year within a decade. Help remove the scourge of polio from the world for ever, just as smallpox was consigned to history over 40 years ago.