While Rotary and its World Health Foundation and government partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have eliminated annual polio cases worldwide by 99.9% since 1988, preventing paralysis and even death among 20 million children, many children suffer from this incurable disease throughout the developing world, suffering deformed and paralysed limbs as well as breathing difficulties for their entire lives.
Hospitals such as Cheshire Services Ethiopia in Addis Ababa provide essential surgery to the limbs of children with polio to prevent further deformation. These surgeries also allow children to wear and walk with leg braces instead of being forced to crawl on the streets, as has been the case for many years. Cheshire Services Ethiopia, an international organisation that serves as the primary caregiver for children and youth with disabilities in Ethiopia, manages rehabilitation hospitals in Meganeshe, Hawassa, and Dire Dawa.
At the hospital in Menaghesha, Ethiopia, however, children did not have adequate programs for physical therapy after their surgeries. Most of the children were sitting about and doing very little, making it more difficult for them to adapt to their physical condition post-surgery and recover properly. Most of the equipment, such as parallel bars for learning to walk, was in very poor condition and often hazardous. Part of the Global Grant was used to purchase new equipment.
 |  |  |
Physical activity - designed to build strength and alleviate pain and discomfort - provides polio survivors with the strength to live and the optimism to become productive citizens. That need led to the two-year (subsequently extended) US$73,500 Polio Rehabilitation & Therapy for Children and Youth with Disabilities Project.
Funding support for the project and its services was provided by cash from the clubs and districts (US$13,341), TRF Global Grant Funding (US$27,865 from the World Fund and US$10,000 from the 5040 District Designated Funds), plus funding from a (now past) Government of Canada Program that partnered with TRF Canada ($22,388). Local oversight of the project was provided by host Rotary Club of Addis Ababa – Sheger, who made regular visits to the hospital.
This Project has trained and empowered mothers of children with disabilities to ensure they can effectively support their children upon returning home. Forty mothers a year were housed, fed, and transported to and from their local villages. In turn, those mothers could then play a vital role in raising awareness and training five other mothers in their communities. The project continued, despite delays due to COVID and political strife within the country, for four years.
 |  |
B & W photos by Gabor Gasztonyi
 |
 |
It also supported retaining two registered physiotherapists to provide intensive rehabilitation and physiotherapy services, including hydrotherapy, for children with polio receiving orthopaedic surgery. This was an invaluable contribution to the health and future recovery of these children, allowing them, in many cases, to walk with leg braces. The training of mothers has continued using manuals prepared as part of our global grant, demonstrating the project's sustainability.
The children also received hydrotherapy services following surgery and some received wheelchairs with repair parts.