Since 1979 Rotary has been at the forefront of the campaign to eliminate polio from the world forever.   In 1985, Rotary launched its PolioPlus program, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children. Rotary has contributed more than $1.7 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. In addition, Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by donor governments to contribute more than $7.5 billion to the effort.. Since 1988, Rotary and our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have seen the number of cases drop from 350,000 per year in 122 countries, to just 22 cases in 2 countries in 2017.