John Hewko, General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, paid an advocacy visit to the Lagos Polio House, accompanied by his wife. The visit placed one of the organisation’s most senior global figures inside the very building where Nigeria’s polio eradication effort is coordinated day to day, a deliberate signal that the fight against the virus remains a priority at every level of Rotary’s leadership.
Rtn Hewko and his wife were received by members of the Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee (NNPPC) and staff of the Lagos Office, who briefed them on the current state of the country ‘ s eradication campaigns, ongoing surveillance efforts, and the partnerships sustaining routine immunisation across the country’s most at-risk states.
A visit from the very top of Rotary’s global structure to a single field office sends a message that travels far beyond the walls of one building. For the NNPPC and the Lagos Office staff, the visit was both recognition and reaffirmation. Nigeria has carried one of the heaviest burdens in the global polio fight; from its years as one of the last wild poliovirus-endemic countries, through certification as wild poliovirus-free in 2020, to its current battle against circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Type 2. Each of these chapters has depended on Rotary’s sustained partnership with WHO, UNICEF, and Nigeria’s federal and state health authorities.
That a leader of Rtn Hewko’s stature would route his itinerary through Lagos Polio House underscores something the eradication community has long understood: this fight is not won by headquarters alone. It is won, and sustained, in the offices, clinics, and field stations where committed people keep the work moving; one campaign, one child, one drop at a … Readmore