May 2021 Newsletter
In his English writing class, Mujahid Miran was asked to write an essay titled the “Aim of life”. This was a space for the students to imagine who they could be and what they saw themselves as when they grew up.
Miran wanted to be a captain in the army and he eagerly shared this ‘aim of life’ in his essay. After his hopes made it to the page, his teacher immediately shot it down: There was no way he would make it, she told him, because he had polio.
Born in 1985, Miran grew up in Kohat and contracted polio when he was two. This was a year before the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was founded in 1988, leading to a worldwide vaccination campaign to fight the spread of the disease. In the decade of the ’80s, the estimated number of cases was over 350 000 per year, while the disease was still prevalent in 125 countries. With focused efforts around the world to eradicate the poliovirus, the number of paralytic cases was reduced by 99.99% with 42 cases in 2016.
For Miran, school was among the most challenging periods of his life. “School life was generally very hard. It must be easier for polio survivors to study in special schools, but in a usual school, I was always referred to as langra, mazoor (derogatory words in Urdu for people with disabilities). I was always made to feel different.”
The challenges were frequent, never letting him forget that he couldn’t walk from one leg. “Among the things that would hurt a lot was sports class or recess. “Every time kids would be chosen for a sports activity, I was completely sidelined – as if I wasn’t even there.” he says.
Academically, Miran always performed well in class and would usually be among the top three students. I always had among the best grades, but I would never be nominated to be the class monitor or get a position as part of the student council, he says. “Every week I’d go to my teacher and ask her why I was never nominated because other students who would be poorer than me academically would be chosen instead. A part of me knew even back then that it was my disability, but now looking back, I know it was exactly that.”
After having lived with polio for 33 years now, Miran is now based in Karachi and is part of a small seafood export business. He buys seafood from factories in Pakistan to sell in southeast Asia and makes an income for the commission he makes per sale.
To rapidly and sustainably stop outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), a modified vaccine, known as novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) is now being rolled out.
13 March 2021, Brazzaville – To rapidly and sustainably stop outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in African countries, a modified vaccine, known as novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) is now being rolled out.
Last year, on 25 August 2020, Africa made history with the African Region Certification Commission for Polio Eradication independently certifying that the Region was free of wild poliovirus. This is the second disease to be kicked out of Africa after smallpox more than 40 years ago.
This achievement is remarkable, considering that in the 1990s wild poliovirus paralysed more than 75,000 African children every single year – a situation that prompted Nelson Mandela in 1996, joined by Rotary International and other partners, to issue a stark call to action: Kick Polio Out of Africa!
All strains of wild poliovirus have now been interrupted in the continent. The last case of wild poliovirus was in August 2016.
However, this tremendous progress remains an unfinished success story. Although Africa is free of wild poliovirus, countries continue to be affected by another form of the virus, known as circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). Such strains are rare, but can occur in under-immunized communities with limited access to safe water and sanitation.
Populations that are adequately immunized are protected from both wild and vaccine-derived strains of poliovirus. However, because of gaps in immunization coverage across Africa, 20 countries have been affected by cVDPV2 outbreaks since 2018.
Dale Gray, our Global Grants chair, tracks all of our District Global Grants and works very hard to help clubs to obtain funds to complete these projects. Through him and efforts by our D.G. Elizabeth Mahoney working with our clubs many of these grants get funded. But in talking with a number of our clubs I am finding that there are a lot of small dollar international projects taking place, and the only time anyone learns about them is if they are written up and posted to our newsletter.
What I am proposing is that clubs contact me with a brief outline of their project, its cost and its impact and pictures if you have them. If funding is needed than perhaps we can connect a club or two in the process-but let’s limit these grants to an amount of $4500 or less-remember it’s supposed to be on the CHEAP!
To kick start this process let’s take a look at a few at a few of these international projects, and their impact.
If you are having trouble viewing this email, view it online | |||||
| |||||
| |||||
| |||||
ACCOUNTABILITY AND INCLUSION: A DEI SERIES
Throughout 2020-2021, Rotary will host a webinar series to explore diversity, equity, and inclusion. Registration will be announced four to eight weeks prior to each webinar, and recordings will be posted here. Topics are subject to change.
TOPIC DESCRIPTION
Design an Inclusive Plan for Your Organization
Rotary values diversity and celebrates the contributions of people of all backgrounds, and we’re committed to reflecting the communities we serve by being inclusive of all cultures, experiences, and identities. So, we need to take action. Before we can effect real change, we need to create a plan that welcomes all people, extends to all activities, and has measurable results.
|
- How his personal background (particularly his youth in Phoenix) led to his work fostering interfaith relations
- Islamic youth in the US and his vision for reducing inter-religious bias
|
- Safeguarding public health and safety;
- Maintaining Scottsdale’s family-friendly neighborhoods;
- Protecting the McDowell Sonoran Preserve;
- Strengthening Scottsdale’s world-renowned reputation;
- And, committed to equal rights for all, responsive city government and adoption of citizen-driven General Plan 2035 to support economic vitality.
- The Pandemic – its scars, healing, and heartbreaking impacts on the City; such as, losses to small businesses, increase in available commercial spaces, increased commercial subletting, and resort, restaurant and store slowdowns.
- City’s highly rated and exceptional hospitals and City’s supporting healthcare services.
- City’s great schools and teachers.
- City’s caring community that nurtures the present and future.
- City’s major events are re-emerging, such as, car shows, golf tournaments, horse shows and spring training baseball games.
- City’s services are being effectively being completed by its 1,600 employees.
- City’s staff pension budget impacts.
- City’s infrastructure needs – noting as an architect, Mayor Ortega has realized that things wear out and creative solutions are needed for Old Town/Downtown buildings (i.e.. Galleria) and Civic Plaza.
- City’s worldwide international connections in business, Rotary, Scottsdale Sister Cities and more.
- Ever increasing migration to Scottsdale from West Coast businesses, employees, professionals, homeowners and retirees.
The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce recently award the Four Peaks Fountain Hills Rotary Club with the Non-Profit of the Year award. Congratulations to all the hard working Four Peaks Rotarians and others who may have been involved.