My name is Piper Paquen and I’m about to break the biggest story of the year. But it’s not this year. Instead, I am writing this from the future – from a world without polio.
It all started in August 2011 when I received a mysterious ring and the ominous instruction: Recruit, to see piece. The ring was missing this piece – so I set out to find it.
Over the weeks I discovered a monumental story: a debilitating disease, a powerful figure leading the movement to end an epidemic across America, a miracle and a worldwide effort to reach the most vulnerable people in developing communities. A war against a disease that would stop conflicts and replace bullets with vaccines – and a mass mobilisation that would beat back the disease by 99%.
This is the story of how our generation stood on the brink of eradicating the second major human disease in history. This is the story of polio.
Miss the last part of my series? You can catch up here.
On the 13th of November, 2013, the last recorded case of polio occurred in Pakistan. In 2014, there were no recorded cases... and in May 2015, the World Health Organisation declared South Asia the last region on the globe to be certified polio- free. Polio became the second major human disease to be eradicated in less than 40 years.
Celebrations were held all over the world and developing communities saw an increase in the workforce, better health coverage and a GDP increase per country of more than 6%. Aid dependence decreased because developing communities were able to channel new funds into infrastructure and education while rolling out existing projects to combat Malaria and TB. New possibilities were created by a generation born free of the disease, who would not contract it later in life. Advances in education would lead to improvements in transparency and greater accountability of governments.
Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last countries to beat polio, saw immediate benefits and placed crucial funds from UNICEF and the WHO into health programs and getting more girls into school. Conflicts accelerated by poverty slowed down and new government initiatives helped the countries build stronger relationships between regions and donors, isolating militants and using greater stability to strengthen civil society institutions.
Across the world, a new momentum fuelled by the success against polio brought advances in our understanding of HIV and AIDS. The Global Fund and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership advocated for a renewed emphasis on ending Malaria by 2020, following a sharp reduction in cases since the 2015 target, and new combination drugs (ATC’s) were developed that greatly improved the lives of millions of people suffering from Tuberculosis.
All this was possible because of a movement to end polio made of thousands of volunteers, campaigners and ordinary people like you who joined our call to close the funding gap and vaccinate against the final 1% of cases in 2011. It was possible because of Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Polio Eradication Initiative who helped health workers reach some of the most remote parts of the globe and guarantee funding to let their work continue. It was possible because a generation understood that ending polio was not just achievable but was a matter of justice, of pride at attaining something truly incredible that would last forever.
This is just a glimpse of what we could achieve by taking small steps today. A world without polio is within reach – and it’s not far away. You can help make Piper’s story a reality by calling on our world leaders to provide crucial support to ending the final 1% of polio cases by signing the petition here- and you can bring the story of polio to your community and inspire others by learning about our polio ambassadors program.
On 28th October as the biggest ever gathering of Commonwealth Leaders takes place, The End of Polio Concert will bring thousands of campaign supporters from across the country, and the Commonwealth, to raise their voices in support of polio eradication. This massive display of public support will drive the issue of investment in eradication back into the international spotlight, and provide Commonwealth leaders with a mandate to close the funding gap currently limiting eradication efforts.
Together we can end polio and complete the missing piece. With a signature you will be adding your voice to the thousands of supporters calling for an end to a crippling and potentially fatal disease that threatens the lives and prosperity of millions. For every signature, Rotary will vaccinate a child in need and give us a chance to finish the story.
That’s 5 million children who can now play, learn and grow free from Polio. That’s 5 million reasons to make this the monumental achievement of our generation.
My name is Piper Paquen and I’ve been uncovering a monumental story. Dimes marching, miracle discoveries and an army of health workers were just the beginning. Read on to find out how I joined the biggest movement of our time and how every one of us, including you, can end this story altogether.... ushering in a whole new era.
Following the pictographs on a mysterious ring, I discovered the story of a powerful public figure paralysed by a crippling disease and a country gripped by fear of infection. The story of a disease that could strike anywhere and destroy the lives of millions of children and adults, a disease that created a movement by the people, creating a vaccine for the people. A disease called Polio.
Miss the last part of my story? You can catch up here.
I discovered a global effort using a new and improved vaccine to reach the most vulnerable communities on the planet, thanks to the father of the oral polio vaccine, Albert Sabin.
I learned that wars would prevent immunisations reaching those that needed it most... and that armies would part to let crucial work against polio continue. But there was something missing.
I had solved the puzzle of the pictographs, following the incredible story of polio from 1921 all the way to a movement to stop the disease during conflicts in the 1960’s... But as I looked at the last picture I wondered about the effects of polio today.
I marvelled at the scale of a monumental movement to end the disease happening right now, across the world and in Australia, America and the UK. I imagined a huge gathering and a chance for millions of young people to play a part in the greatest achievement of our generation, celebrating the end to polio in our lifetime.
How did such an enormous effort reach a global scale that today has ended 99% of polio cases, down to just 421 in 2011 from more than a 1000 cases worldwide in a single day in 1988?
Polio – a disease which has disabled millions and pulled individuals further into poverty – has been reduced by 99% over the past 30 years, and its end is within our reach.
In 1990, the Initiative established the Global Polio Laboratory Network to detect and research the virus across the globe and in 1994 the World Health Organisation announced the last cases of polio in Central and South America – with the Western Pacific being certified polio free in 2000 and Europe following in 2002.
With bigger and bigger vaccination programs after the millennium, polio was beaten back despite severe conflicts in polio endemic regions of Africa and fresh outbreaks in West Africa, Yemen and Indonesia. Today, polio is endemic in just four countries, representing a reduction in cases by more than 99%: in NIgeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
We’ve reached the brink of defeating polio forever... but in 2011 we need to overcome a funding gap to make sure that the work of the Polio Eradication Initiative and Rotary International continues this incredible by story reaching those most in need.
In 2000, a record of 550 million children received the oral polio vaccine – almost 10% of the world’s population. Even more were vaccinated in 2001, and in 2006 there were only four countries left.
Ending polio is the missing piece. By supporting the Global Poverty Project, Rotary International and the Polio Eradication Initiative, I believe we can make this the monumental achievement of our generation. That’s why I started a petition to call on our world’s leaders and make it happen.
Together we can end polio and complete the missing piece. With a signature you will be adding your voice to the thousands of supporters calling for an end to a crippling and potentially fatal disease that threatens the lives and prosperity of millions. For every signature, Rotary will vaccinate a child in need and give us a chance to finish the story.
That’s 5 million children who can now play, learn and grow free from Polio. That’s 5 million reasons to make this the monumental achievement of our generation.
This is the story of Polio. This is your story. You can support the end of polio by joining my facebook page and follow the latest news from the movement at theendofpolio.com!
As part of our focus on health and poverty this month, we look at another amazing video by The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – who work to combat these diseases across the world. The Global Fund contributes 2/3 of the international funding to fight TB and Malaria and almost a quarter of all money to fight AIDS worldwide – making their work vital to increasing the capacity of communities in developing countries across the world, by stopping preventable disease and allowing individuals to live enriching lives free from disease.
Their work is huge with thousands of volunteers and health workers in more than 150 countries who are able to save one million people every single year, making ending the gap in funding for global health even more important. That’s 3,600 lives every day – lives that keep breathing, keep living and achieving great things because of vaccinations, bed nets, HIV testing, advice, research and global outreach to developing communities most at risk from these three diseases.
Together with our partners Malaria No More UK, we are supporting the Global Fund’s One Million Lives campaign to fight malaria; a disease that causes around 225 million illnesses and 781,000 deaths every year, and cripples the economies of developing countries.
Malaria is preventable, but it kills a child every 90 seconds, or about half the time it takes to read one of our blogs. The Global Fund provide crucial grants to projects that help tackle these diseases, like the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria, working with the Roll Back Malaria partnership and DFID to make the most effective combination of Malaria treatment drugs (ATC’s) available to developing countries by lowering prices, subsidising procurement and eliminating the bridge between buyers and pharmaceuticals.
As the video shows so well, this is a fight we can win. With the right funding the Global Fund can use the support from everyday people – like you and me – to make miracles happen.
With the right funding the Global Fund and others can make sure that all children in the world are born HIV free by 2015, and by 2020 we can eliminate malaria. We have the medicines, skills and awareness to help end these diseases... and we have the manpower too. We know that small things can make big changes, like expanding the provision of malaria nets or providing basic skin tests for TB among high risk communities.
The work of the Global Fund is crucial for helping targeted projects and healthcare reaching the most vulnerable communities. Diseases like Malaria and HIV are entrenched in the complex cycle of poverty across the world and developing communities are often at the highest risk of live threatening illnesses whilst receiving the least access to treatment. Preventative measures are a key way in which the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and others are able to stem this tide, by co-ordinating immunisations, outreach of vaccines and awareness programs but they urgently require funding.
In Spring of next year, governments are getting together to decide how much more money to give the Global Fund. Now is the time for donors to step up and declare they will ‘Fund the Fund’.
Together with Malaria No More UK, we are asking you to sign our petition asking the British Government to double what it gives to The Global Fund. We need to make sure they’re doing all they can to save lives - by setting an example for the rest of the world to follow.
If the Global Fund has the extra money it needs, it will get us a long way towards saving 3 million children’s lives from malaria by 2015. Not to mention the millions more that will be helped by the Global Fund’s work on TB and HIV, so please add your name to the petition.
Because of this massive opportunity, we are also asking people in the UK to write a letter to their local MP telling them of their support for the Global Fund.
In this blog we tend to talk in terms of making overseas aid better. Making aid smarter, giving more and being more effective... But a new report by Action Aid is going beyond this to suggest that aid in developing countries, while not always given effectively, is being spent wisely by recipient governments and boosting economic growth.
In the last ten years, aid dependency from the world’s poorest countries has been reduced by an average of a third, with African governments leading the way. Since the 1990’s Ghana and Mozambique have both cut their aid substantially - by 19% and 16% from 47 and 74% of Gross National Income (GNI - the total income of the country). In Rwanda, this figure is remarkable, with aid dependency falling from 85% of GNI at the start of re-elections in 2000 to just 45% by the time of the second elections in 2010. Aid dependency has also fallen by up to 15% in Mali, Tanzania and Senegal, Uganda and Zambia.
Image: BBC World News/Africa.
How is this possible?
Action Aid are joining others to suggest that aid itself is getting better – with a significant reduction in tied aid – aid that is provided on the condition of services provided by the donor - and an increase in the amount of real aid (read “good aid”) that is being directed to developing countries. Action aid describe real aid as:
“..targeted at the poorest and the recipient country must be given the space to own and lead its own development plans. Real aid is not tied, is administered efficiently and is used in the recipient country. If it comes in the form of technical assistance, it must be wanted by the recipient.”
But that is just a small part of the story, because it is the countries like Ghana, Botswana and Tanzania that have increasingly used this aid to focus on reducing poverty, stabilising the economy and freeing themselves of external dependence. By increasing tax revenues, investing in infrastructure for business and backing micro-finance projects for resource poor communities.
“Not all aid is the same. Real aid is effective and has few strings attached. It puts developing countries where they should be – in the driving seat of their own development. It makes governments answerable to their own citizens, rather than to the donors. And real aid can help countries do things like raising tax revenues more effectively, so they can generate more of their own funds for development.”
Outside Africa the story holds – with Guyana, Cambodia and Mongolia all moving away from aid dependence. Rapidly leaving the developing label behind, Vietnam is one example of aid supporting, but not leading the way out of recession, to a new status as the possible next biggest economy by 2020 alongside China and India. Like the other countries here, Vietnam was able to use aid to:
1. Foster a strong national policy for an economic plan, like Rwanda’s Vision 2020.
2. Pool aid into stabilising infrastructure, supporting the extension of existing systems to help businesses and domestic interests which generate independent income streams. Like Vietnam’s huge investment into the coffee trade.
3. Tackling corruption and supporting the growth of co-operatives and micro-finance banks – like Tanzania’s CRDB and Ghana’s plan for making sure donors of aid meet the countries criteria and policies.
4. Using aid to build better institutions and promote national programs for building Women’s participation and universal education.
The message is simple. Ending aid dependency is important, and aid dependency is falling. But supplying real aid – or ‘good’ aid can help reduce poverty further, by allowing foreign governments to prioritise funds into areas that are best suited for them and make bigger, longer term decisions about reducing poverty and economic stability.
Falling dependency doesn’t mean ending aid altogether, it means giving and using aid smarter.
Meet Dudu. With his positive drive and wisecracking antics, he is probably one of the main reasons for seeing Africa United. A film that inspires us with a soulful and upbeat view of Africa as a mismatched band of children embark on a road trip 3,000 miles from the tiny hill country of Rwanda to the World Cup in South Africa. A film that shows us how to make a world class football from a condom.
This is not a film about football. It’s a film about community- the places the children visit and the journey they take, but most importantly it is the bond between the five that overcomes the obstacles they face and the differences between them. From different countries, backgrounds and classes – including a runaway, a child soldier and an orphan of the genocide, the group un-ashamedly parallel the message for a united Africa. A message for ‘Ubuntu’, a phrase that means ‘community’ in several Southern African countries, but specifically refers to the importance of working with others and kindness in Kinyarwanda (Rwandan).
Metaphors in the film are barely disguised but carry some valid comments for development – and while the majority of the 90 minutes is aimed at a younger and uninitiated audience, it wouldn’t hurt many of us in the sector to learn from it. Dudu, the film’s charismatic narrator embodies much of the journey’s sentiment while staying decidedly bouncy throughout, wearing an oversized jacket that symbolises his street wise maturity, while remaining effectively ‘cute’ as the youngest of the five.
Through the childrens’ journey, the film touches briefly on some of the difficulties that communities in Rwanda, the DR. Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa face without offsetting the fantastically positive energy of the characters, subtly hinting at the effects of the Rwandan genocide, the abduction and use of child soldiers, sex workers, HIV and lack of access to basic services.
Issues that the children both acknowledge and work around in the film; enforcing the -admittedly obvious- point that African communities are vibrant, full of energy and most of all, able. Truths that are hard to find in films about Africa.
The journey itself is narrated simultaneously by the incorporation of colourful animations illustrating a story about overcoming conflict, by bringing people together with football. Oh and just in case you missed it, the film is about making the impossible, possible:
While the film tends to verge on fantasy with the group miraculously passing from country to country with few interruptions, it provides a reflection of East and South African society that is refreshingly authentic. In similar trend to Slumdog Millionaire, the film deliberately integrated local people and customs into the filming process, casting almost exclusively from Rwanda and Uganda where Rwandan producer Eric Kabera helped combine shoots from three countries with some incredible African music and uniquely African perspective.
Ultimately this is a movie that you can get excited about. You can watch it with the kids and you can enjoy it without a huge emotional investment in Africa’s so called ‘problems’.. and you should, because Africa is full of vibrant, generous, intelligent and capable communities that rarely get such an open platform to express themselves.
Do the children make it to South Africa in time for the World Cup? And how do they deal with the constant phone-calls from Fabrice’s mum? Watch the film and find out - I’m off to book some tickets to Rwanda.
.png)
.png)
Following the pictographs on a mysterious ring, I discovered the story of a powerful public figure paralysed by a crippling disease and a country gripped by fear of infection. The story of a disease that could strike anywhere and destroy the lives of millions of children and adults, a disease that created a movement by the people, creating a vaccine for the people. A disease called Polio.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
