Media Relations Campaign Raises Awareness of Rotary International’s Pivotal Role in Worldwide Effort to End Polio

For most Americans, polio is a disease of the past, but in many parts of the world it remains a crippling threat. An international health initiative to immunize children in high-risk countries aimed to eradicate the disease by 2005.

Among the players in the international effort was Rotary International, an Evanston, Illinois-based humanitarian organization, that was the first to declare war against the disease in 1985, launching the PolioPlus program to fund, organize and conduct vaccination campaigns in vulnerable locations throughout Asia and Africa. Rotarians dreamed of making polio the second disease ever to be eradicated (smallpox was the first), a goal that was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF.

As Rotary International approached its Centennial anniversary, which coincided with the polio eradication target, the organization sought to raise public awareness of the pivotal role played by Rotarians. Rotarians had contributed more than $600 million and provided countless volunteers who paid their own way to travel overseas and administer the polio vaccine to children. Despite Rotary’s key role, it was often overshadowed in news coverage of the eradication effort by its more prominent international partners. An informed public would aid Rotary’s ongoing effort to mobilize donations and volunteer support.

The "good news" story Rotary wanted to tell began to break down before the media campaign got under way. Polio incidence had been reduced by 99 percent worldwide, but outbreaks in Central Africa threatened to derail the progress. Instead of an eradication celebration, media were focusing on successive outbreaks and noting that the target deadline would not be met any time soon. It became PCI's job to keep stories positive, position polio eradication as a viable goal and keep Rotary and its volunteer efforts visible.

Rotary had nine-months to tell its story through media and PCI consulted with its staff to identify multiple story news angles to keep the story alive, including:

• National Immunization Day (NID) trips and compelling volunteer stories

• 50th anniversary of the Salk vaccine and Rotarians who played a role in the first vaccinations

• PolioPlus news conference at the Rotary Centennial Celebration, which drew more than 40,000 Rotarians from around the world; the news conference included Rotary spokespersons, the director-general of WHO and the director of CDC

• First-person campaign accounts by Rotarian volunteers at the TIME Global Health Summit

Rotary International and the PolioPlus campaign were recognized in a total of 80 stories that reached an estimated U.S. audience of more than 40.2 million.

Stories were placed with wire services, national radio, print media and Web sites, with particular success with national and top market newspapers, including USA Today, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Tribune Magazine.

Examples of message pick-up included:

• Associated Press: “(Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director-general of WHO) was in Chicago for the 100th anniversary conference of Rotary International, an Evanston-based humanitarian organization that has given more than $600 million and volunteers to help eradicate polio.” Wire service coverage by AP and Reuters generated at least 65 stories in national and international media outlets.

• USA Today: CDC director Julie Gerberding was quoted stating, “Without Rotarians, who provide much of the legwork, the muscle and certainly the brain power to make these efforts successful, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

• Los Angeles Times: “`We knew in 1985 that the virus didn’t represent a great threat against America,’ said William Sergeant, who heads Rotary International’s polio effort. ‘We were determined to do something for the children of the world.’…Immunizing Muslim communities has proven difficult, said Anil Garg, a Rotarian who has traveled to India four times to work with the polio program…Rotary has pledged that it will stick with the campaign until the disease is documented as being eradicated.”

• New York Times: “Dr. Carol Pandak, head of polio eradication for Rotary International, which declared war on the disease in 1985 and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for it, called the recent outbreaks ‘unfortunate incidents, but not ones that I think will slow the program down.’”

In addition to media coverage, PCI’s contact with TIME magazine senior writer Jeff Kluger helped cultivate an opportunity for Rotarian volunteer Ezra Teshome to speak at the TIME Global Health Summit, which featured a roster of high profile individuals including President Bill Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Bill Gates and Bono.