Chance encounter inspires new commitment to End Polio

Strategic placement of End Polio Now stickers can help promote Rotary’s polio eradication effort

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Habiba Bennani

By Habiba Bennani, assistant Rotary public image coordinator and a member of the Rotary Club of Tunis La Paix, Tunisia

We often wear our Rotary pins or display our logos out of habit, or a quiet pride. But sometimes, a simple sticker becomes a bridge between two lives.

​A few weeks ago, I was in a lounge waiting for my flight when I opened my laptop to get some work done. On the cover is my End Polio Now sticker. A gentleman approached me, intrigued by the logo. What could have been a brief moment of curiosity turned into one of the most moving testimonies I have ever heard.

​He told me the story of his father — who contracted polio at the age of three in Brooklyn, New York. Driven by an iron will as an adult, his father wanted to join the army to serve his country, but was turned down for active combat duty because of the physical after-effects of the disease.

Nevertheless, he accepted a position as a mechanic with the army. It was a life of hard, physical labor. He had a permanent limp, but served with resilience and dignity. He would not let a virus define his limits. And he passed down to his son both the will to overcome adversity and the importance of showing compassion to all people, whoever they are and whatever their life situation may be.

​Listening to this son speak about his father with such raw emotion, I suddenly saw faces, struggles, and destinies behind the word “eradication.”​I have been a member of Rotary for four years. I’ve seen the charts, read the brochures, and attended the meetings. But it took this chance encounter — this human “spark” — to truly feel the absolute urgency of our mission.

When I got home, I made my first personal donation to the Polio Plus fund (I’m far from the Major Donor level, but this first step was a personal milestone).​It was no longer just a figure in an annual report. It was for that father, the mechanic. It was so that no other child would ever have their dreams limited by a preventable disease.

​Sometimes, the biggest inspiration and motivation for ending polio isn’t found in our meetings, but in the people we meet and their heart-felt stories.