World Polio Day: Littlehampton Rotarians partner with community groups in Worthing and Angmering to plant carpets of purple crocuses

The Littlehampton Satellite Rotary Club, based in Angmering, is keen to raise awareness of the fight to totally eradicate polio from the world.

Members joined in the campaign this year by planting carpets of purple crocuses in Angmering and West Worthing.

Rotarians worked with a team from Angmering in Bloom to plant 250 crocuses on the roundabout in Roundstone Road, Angmering, and with the Friends of West Worthing Station to plant 250 crocuses in the new garden they are creating.

East Preston Infant School and East Preston Junior School are also planting out 250 crocuses each on the grounds, helping the children to learn about the campaign.

Jeremy Flasket, club president, said: “It is exciting to see a project which brings together local community groups in order to be able to improve our local environment, and at the same time acknowledge the wider global and international health issues that we face.”

Only two countries still have polio cases, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and these have fallen from 140 in 2020 to just two in the current year.

Rotarian David Chapman said: “It is important that it is totally eradicated. If not, it could gain a foothold and return again to our shores, much like the worries about Covid.

“Concerns grow with the present situation in Afghanistan, where it has now become much more dangerous to operate the programme. However, in spite of the risks and challenges, the World Health Organisation continues its work in Afghanistan with Rotary support.

“An emblem of that effort has become the purple crocus, a symbol of the fact that in some developing countries those who have had the vaccine have their little fingers dyed purple to avoid duplication of vaccination.”

For more information about Rotary activites in the area, email Gerald Ilsley at [email protected].