End in sight for PAIN of polio as FC Barcelona, Gates Foundation team up

By SOLA OGUNDIPE

EVERY Nigerian child along with other children in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India (the PAIN countries) as well as children across the globe will now have equal access to a polio-free life as Football Club Barcelona Foundation, in collaboration with FC Barcelona and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, teamed up to initiate a three-year partnership with the goal of energising the global fight to end polio.

The partnership which kicked off last week in Washington DC, is particularly significant even as new cases of transmission of the wild polio virus are being recorded in parts of northern Nigeria.

Although Nigeria has taken commendable strides in commitment to kicking polio out of the country, in June, UNICEF reported fresh cases of the wild polio virus in Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Yobe States.

A statement from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stated that this latest initiative is aimed at drawing attention to the promise of life-saving vaccines, while facilitating the move to ensure polio is the second diseases to be eradicated from the surface of the earth.

Polio, a global crippling disease, has been reduced globally by 99 percent and is one of the best examples of the value of life-saving vaccines. Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria are infamously called the “PAIN” countries because they are the only remaining countries in the world where polio transmission has never been stopped.

• FC Barcelona President Sandro Rosell (left), with FC Barcelona Coach Josep Guardiola (right), presenting the “End Polio” jersey to Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Bill Gates (center), duriug last week’s announcement in Washington D.C.of a three-year partnership to energise the global fight to end polio and draw attention to the promise of life-saving vaccines.

The partnership was announced by Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with FC Barcelona President Sandro Rosell and Manager Josep Guardiola, at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

“We have the chance to score a big win against polio, but we need loud and passionate voices to join the fight. FC Barcelona’s commitment to using sport for social good will help us rally support for vaccines and end polio once and for all,” Gates noted at the historic event

Responding, Rosell said: “Our partnership with the Gates Foundation underscores our long-standing commitment to making the world a better place. Sport is an effective way to reach children and youth, and we have found that it can be used to benefit the health of people worldwide.”

“Just as football is a universal sport with the power to transform lives, vaccines are a universal tool with the power to save lives. Fans know that FC Barcelona is more than a club, and ending polio is more than a goal.

When fans yell ‘Finish it!’, it can be very powerful. We’d like to take that same energy and help finish polio once and for all,” said Guardiola.