In October 2012, Terrace Rotarians Art and Lesley Erasmus made their fourth trip to Ethiopia Africa to immunize children against polio and work on education and water projects.
 

Ethiopia is a landlocked country in east Africa with a population of 77 million peoples on a landmass the size of Ontario. This time they were accompanied by Rotarian Jo Ann Hildebrandt from Kitimat. Other Rotarians from the lower mainland and Washington State made a total group of about 40 travellers. One purpose of the trip was to immunize children against polio, a crippling disease eliminated from the Americas about 50 years ago but still endemic in three countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. In other developing countries including Ethiopia and India children are still being immunized to ensure that this crippling disease does not reappear.
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Two drops of polio vaccine will prevent this child from ever being
crippled by polio – the cost $0.60
Lesley Erasmus immunizing at child – “two drops”

Polio is an old disease. However, by 1910, much of the world experienced a dramatic increase in polio cases and epidemics became regular events, primarily in cities during the summer months. These epidemics, which left thousands of children and adults paralyzed — provided the impetus for a "Great Race" towards the development of a vaccine. Developed in the 1950s, polio vaccines have reduced the global number of polio cases per year from over 350,000 in 1985 to fewer than 300 today. Since 1985 coordinated vaccination efforts led by Rotary International, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the US Centers for Disease Control should result in global eradication of the disease.

Typically National Immunization Days (NID’S) are organized by national health organizations with the help of volunteer organizations like Rotary. Quality control is supervised by the World Health Organization (WHO). Immunization is done mostly by volunteers, either by going house to house especially in rural areas or in a clinic. Up to 2,000,000 children have been immunized on a single NID. One dose of vaccine consists of two drops and cost approximately 60 cents.

In addition, Art and Lesley have been working with Ethiopian Rotarians to provide, education opportunities and clean water and sanitation to communities in need. On their first trip in 2003, they met elders of the village of Lege Tafo. There was a 4 room school with an enrollment of 320 students. There were another 300 students in the village who could not attend school as the school was too small. The school had no clean water and not toilets. Water was carried to the school and the homes in the village from a contaminated spring which was also the water source for the livestock.

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Clean running water from the well at the school is also available to the community Kitimat teacher Jo Ann Hildebrandt in a primary classroom

Funds raised through a number of Rotary clubs in British Columbia plus a grant from the Rotary Foundation were to build 4 additional classrooms and activate a well to provide clean water to the school and toilets for the students.

By 2012, Rotary funds were further leveraged with regional government efforts in Ethiopia to a point where there is a 20 room school adjacent to the original 4 room school with an enrollment of close to 1,500 students. There is clean water on the school site, and there is a library and meeting hall for the community. While the facilities for the community and the students as shown in the photos are primitive by Canadian standards, village leaders in Lege Tafo are grateful for the life opportunities their children will have as a result of being able to go to school. One child told us: “If I owned a pen, I would be able to go to school”. Another one about 8 year old said: “If I work had at school and get an education I will not be poor like my family is”.

Art Erasmus was District Governor in District 5040 in 2001-2002. He is board chair of Coast Mountains School District 82 and a proud Rotarian since 1984. He lives in Terrace with his wife, Lesley who is an Assistant District Governor and has been a Rotarian since 2000.