Blouberg Rotary Club raises polio awareness in Table View
From left; Rex Omameh (Blouberg Rotarian); Marlene le Roux (polio survivor) & Artscape CEO; Prof Pierre Goussard, Tygerberg Children’s Hospital; Blouberg Rotary President Jackie Claydon and Helène Visser (Blouberg Rotarian)
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From left, Dirk-Jan Dijkstra, Olivier Baudry, Peter Rokitta, Graham Claydon and Jacques Pratt who are all Blouberg Rotarians, and Jackie Claydon lying in the ‘iron lung’
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Down syndrome ambassador Shuneez Scott with her Mom Bahia and President Jackie – celebrating Down Syndrome Day with Polio Day on Saturday, October 25.
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Rotary Interact club members from Blouberg International School helping with the Polio awareness campaign on Friday, October 24.
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The Rotary Club of Blouberg hosted a two-day polio awareness campaign at Bayside Shopping Centre in Table View on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25.
The campaign aimed to educate the public about polio and the importance of vaccination.
Rotarian at Blouberg Rotary Club, Helène Visser, said shoppers were invited to experience what polio patients endured in the 1950s and 60s by lying in a replica wooden “iron lung,” a device once used to help patients breathe before the development of the polio vaccine by Dr Jonas Salk.
Club members shared information with the public and encouraged parents to ensure their children’s immunisations are up to date, noting that only about 67% of young children in South Africa have reportedly been vaccinated against polio.
Pupils from Blouberg International High School’s Interact Club assisted Rotarians on Friday, while members of the Curro Century City Interact Club joined the campaign on Saturday morning, said Ms Visser.
The event was also supported by notable guests, including Artscape CEO and polio survivor Marlene le Roux, who spent two hours engaging with the public, and Professor Pierre Goussard from Tygerberg Children’s Hospital, who lent his expertise to the initiative.