The list, now in its seventeenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals.

Dr. Funsho, a cardiologist based in Lagos, Nigeria, is the first Rotary member to receive this honor for the organization’s work to eradicate polio, having played an essential role in ensuring Africa’s certification as wild polio-free in August of 2020.

“I’m honored to be recognized by TIME for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabled 75,000 African children every single year,” said Dr. Funsho. “Eradicating the wild poliovirus in Africa was a team effort that required the cooperation and dedication of governments, partners, Rotary members, hundreds of thousands of health workers, and countless parents who chose to have their children vaccinated against polio.”

As the leader of Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee, Funsho has worked alongside Rotary members throughout the country to raise awareness about the importance of polio immunization, encouraged governments and public figures to support polio eradication, and served as a vocal leader and advocate for Rotary’s fight to end polio in Africa.

Dr. Funsho works closely with Rotary’s partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI): the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. As a member of Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force on Polio, he has coordinated immunization and advocacy campaigns with the Minister of State for Health and the Inter-Agency Coordination Committee for Polio Eradication. He has also worked closely with the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation, the Dangote Foundation, the Traditional Leaders Council and the Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria.

In August 2019, Nigeria reached three years without a case of wild poliovirus. Nigeria’s progress, led by Rotary, its GPEI partners and local and national governments, was the result of decades of sustained efforts, including domestic and international financing, the commitment of hundreds of thousands of health workers, and innovative strategies to immunize children who previously couldn’t be reached due to insecurity in the country’s northern states.

On 25 August, the African region was certified wild polio-free. This historic announcement means that five of the WHO’s six regions, representing more than 90 percent of the world’s population, are now free of the wild poliovirus. The virus is now endemic in just two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Rotary’s nearly 32,000 members in Africa have played a critical role in helping the region achieve its wild polio-free status by holding events to raise funds and awareness for polio, and working with world governments and national and local leaders to secure funding and support for polio eradication.

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Migration and infectious diseases are highly connected. Immigrants are associated with the spread of infectious diseases, it is also important to recognize that some migrants—particularly refugees fleeing war, persecution, or natural disaster—come from regions with weak or disrupted health systems therefore face a unique set of challenges to health care, hence the need for immunization.

“For you people to travel all the way from Calabar during this rainy period to immunize our children, may you be blessed and rewarded” says Ketches Peter, Head of the 13 autonomous Communities in the Okende Refugees Settlement, Ogoja Local Government Area (LGA) of Cross River State. “We are so happy with your support.”

Mr Peter’s praises are a reflection of the dire need for health and humanitarian assistance in the refugee settlement areas. As at 31 July 2019, 74% of the Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria reside either in recognized settlement camps or within host communities across six LGAs of Cross River State. Unfavorable living and environmental conditions continue to be the main challenge among refugees.

The WHO Nigeria Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) Unit resolved to leverage on National Immunization Days (NIDs) to vaccinate all eligible refugee children, not only in Okende and Adagom refugee Settlements of Ogoja LGA, but also across all other settlements in six LGAs of the State.

Prior to the implementation of the July 2019 NIDs, WHO team conducted an advocacy visit to community leaders of the communities in Adagom and Okende Refugee Settlements in Ogoja LGA seeking collaboration and commitment towards successful implementation of the exercise. With the support of biometric registration data from UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) micro-plans were developed with community leaders to ascertain the spread of refugees within and outside Ogoja LGA.

Vaccination team members were nominated from the refugees trained and carefully selected alongside State Government health workers with daily orientation before commencement of the daily vaccination activities.

“During the implementation exercise, there was supervision by the WHO led team on the ground and committed refugee community heads ensured that pockets of non-compliance were resolved and all eligible children immunized,” says WHO Cross River State Coordinator, Dr Rilwan Raji.

At the advocacy visit to the elected Chairman and Head of the 41 Communities in Adagom, Dr Raji and his team emphasized the need to go beyond the polio national immunization days soliciting the support of the community leaders to mobilize their wards for weekly routine immunization sessions at the health centers in Adagom and Okende, which they fully agreed.

“WHO will continue to work with Government to ensure every child is immunized and not one single child left behind,” he stated.

The national immunization campaign was held with the supervision of the state government from 20 to 23 July 2019 using the household, fixed- post and special teams strategy throughout Cross River State benefitting the two refugee settlements in Ogoja, as well 26 refugee host communities across six (6) LGAs- Akamkpa, Bakassi, Boki, Etung, Ikom, Obanliku. A total of 5,863 eligible children from refugee camps were vaccinated with two drops of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) as against 2,042 and 1,809 vaccinated in April and July 2018 NIDs respectively when the influx into Cross River initially began.

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The funding comes as Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)  address the final—and most pressing—challenges to ending poliovirus transmission, and as Nigeria approaches three years without any reported cases of wild poliovirus, bringing the Africa region closer to polio-free status.

“Routine immunization in high-risk states is helping us prevent new cases of wild polio,” said Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair or Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee. “Although the polio infrastructure has become stronger and allows us to also respond to other serious health concerns, we must remain committed to ensuring the political and financial support necessary to ending polio in Nigeria and around the globe for good.”

While there were only 33 cases of wild poliovirus reported in 2018, the last mile of eradication has proven to be the most difficult. Barriers to eradication–like weak health systems, insecurity, and mobile and remote populations–must be overcome. As long as a single child has polio, all children are at risk, which underscores the need for continued funding and commitment to eradication.

To support polio eradication efforts in endemic countries, Rotary is allocating half the funds it announced today to: Afghanistan ($16.3 million), Nigeria ($10.2 million), and Pakistan ($25.2million). Additional funding will support efforts to keep vulnerable countries polio-free:

• Chad ($102,395)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo ($9.5 million)
• Ethiopia ($2.6 million)
• Iraq ($6 million)
• Kenya ($6.3 million)
• Mali ($1.2 million)
• Somalia ($1.4 million)
• South Sudan ($1.2 million)
• Syria ($1.7 million)
• Yemen ($2.1 million)

The World Health Organization (WHO) will receive $1.3 million to conduct research, and will also receive support for surveillance activities in its Africa ($10.9 million) and Eastern Mediterranean ($4 million) Regions.

Rotary has committed to raising $50 million a year to be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, amounting to $150 million for polio eradication annually. Rotary has contributed more than $1.9 billion to fight the disease, including matching funds from the Gates Foundation, and countless volunteer hours since launching its polio eradication program, PolioPlus, in 1985. In 1988, Rotary became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Gates Foundation later joined. Since the initiative launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to 33 cases of wild poliovirus in 2018.

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