Money for lives

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 59

Money for lives

Every day 750 children get polio. Seventy-five will die. The rest will spend their lives as cripples. To vaccinate five children against the disease (and at the same time to protect them from other killers like measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, whooping cough and tetanus), costs one dollar. To eradicate all these diseases from the world will cost $U5120,000,000. These are the stark statistics behind Rotary International’s Polio Plus campaign. Each club throughout the world has been levied according to its membership in a bid to raise the money needed to stop the unnecessary deaths of so many of the world’s children. For the Christchurch West club, the levy meant they had to find $9OOO. Their 55 members felt that this wasn’t enough. They decided to do 1000 per cent better — and came up with the idea of Motorama. Motorama is Canterbury’s first ever combined show for motor vehicles, motor cycles, caravans, camper vans, camping equipment, boats and accessories. Through it, the club hopes to raise $lOO,OOO. Or, to put it in their own terms, to save the lives of half a million children. Adults will pay five dollars to get into Moto-

rama this week-end. As one member of the organising committee, Mr George Begg, says, “It’s a small price to pay to remove such a large chunk of human suffering from the world. “Your visit to Motorama will mean that 25 children will still be alive and walking this time next year. We have the power to save them. All we need is the inclination.