The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is giving US$10 million to help eradicate polio in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and a select number of African countries. Funding will also help eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) in 13 remaining African countries and other areas where the disease is endemic.
The polio donation ($5 million) goes to Rotary International, which has spent billions in recent decades to eradicate this paralyzing disease. Any donation to Rotary is matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — a financial blessing that presents an opportunity to eradicate the disease within our lifetime.
Michael K. McGovern, chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, said, “Rotary is grateful for this very generous contribution from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The funding comes at a critical time for polio eradication efforts and will help protect children from lifelong paralysis due to the poliovirus.”
Half of the Church’s grant to Rotary will help African countries regain progress lost due to COVID-19. In under-immunized areas such as Malawi and Mozambique, wild poliovirus has reemerged. And communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria are seeing polio outbreaks rarely seen in places where the disease was once eradicated.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
