By SOLA OGUNDIPE

ON October 19, 2013, Rotary Nigeria organised a charity cycling event tagged Rotary Bike-A-Thon to highlight the strategic importance of raising awareness  collaboration and embracing  oral vaccinations to aid complete eradication of the Oral Polio Virus, OPV, in Nigeria and globally.

One of the participants at the event tagged the “ThisClose campaign” was Nollywood actress Funke Akindele, who  was appointed by Rotary in Nigeria to join other notable global Rotary polio icons, Bill Gates, Desmond Tutu, Isabella Fontana, Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Dan Maraya, Sani Dana  and many others in creating awareness for polio in a fun and practical way.

Funke, also  spearheaded the grassroots enlightenment outreach in the rural areas.  When she was called upon to be Ambassador for the Rotary End Polio Now campaign, also known as  the Bike- A-Thon event, Funke didn’t hesitate to accept.

Here are excerpts of her response during the event: “I feel so interested, honoured and privileged joining  international stars such as Jackie Chan, Bill Gates and Desmond amongst others.

“I see it as a plus for me and a privilege. I have passion for helping people in my own little way I have my own Foundation called Jenifa Foundation. We empower young people, we fight causes like stopping HIV/AIDS stigmatisation. Whichever way, we can give back to society I will support and that’s why I accepted this. We give back to society so that’s why I decided to do this for free.

“I will do my best to help rid the world of polio, through efforts  like educating people on polio, drawing people’ s attention etc. On this kind of project, you don’t expect money. People love the jenifa character and funke akindele and this is the way I can use to help stop children dying because of polio.

“I love the children  so much and I’m ready to go all over to talk to people about polio. If we say polio isnot here in the South, what if people change location? Every child will be at risk again, so let’s join hands to kick out polio now.

“I feel so honoured to be part of a charitable cause like this. I accepted this appointment because polio kills or paralyses children and Rotary is committed to ending this terrible disease worldwide. I also learned that the world  has never been so close to eradication of polio since the mid 80’s thanks to the vigorous efforts of Rotary International and its partners.”

Already, Nigeria is on the verge of polio eradication. As of October 4, 2013, there were 49 cases of confirmed Wild Polio Virus in nine states of the Federation compared to 101 cases in 11 states at the same period in 2012.