If You Want to Do Something Really Big

Few Americans think about polio these days; for many it has gone the way of the steam locomotive and black-and-white TV. But this crippling viral disease still threatens children in parts of Africa and Asia. Twenty-five years ago my organization, Rotary International, joined with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to try to bring an end to it once and for all. We’re almost there: Last year saw only 223 new cases worldwide. That’s a drop of more than 99% from the 350,000 cases reported annually in the 1980s.