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Home , Bill Gates, ONE Campaign

Dear Rotary Leaders,

General Secretary Hewko attended the 's India Economic Summit in Mumbai last weekend. The General Secretary served on a panel discussing skills development and training in India and was invited to attend several side events during the meeting.

In addition to serving on a panel, the WEF's media staff approached us requesting that the GS submit an op-ed, on a topic of his choosing, for possible publication in one of the major Indian business dailies. The GS chose to do a piece that tied India's continued economic development with Rotary's work on eradication.

We are pleased to report that the op-ed was published in the 14 November edition of The Hindu Business Line. You can read an online version of the piece at the following link: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article2625123.ece

Also, here are some highlights from World Polio Day activities: . Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation collaborated on the placement of World Polio Day opinion pieces in about a dozen media outlets worldwide. Bill Gates & Rotarians made an advocacy visit to , DC. . The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting yielded an announcement pledging more than US$100 million for polio eradication. There was also a successful “End of Polio Concert” and advocacy efforts with Rotarians and advocacy group Global . . In the biggest coordinated effort of “This Close” Ambassadors ever, participants including Jack Nicklaus, AR Rahman, Itzhak Perlman, shared their "this close" PSAs on their social networks, reaching more than 8 million people.

Additional details follow below.

With best regards, Petina Dixon-Jenkins

Petina Dixon-Jenkins Lead Media Relations Specialist: PolioPlus (847) 866-3054 p (847) 866-8237 f www.rotary.org/endpolio

OPINION PIECES Working in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a series of op-eds were placed in key newspapers worldwide. Australia “Crippling disease is down, but not out”- Bill Gates & Prime Minister Julia Gillard West Angelique Kidjo’s piece was published in three outlets: Jeune Afrique, a regional publication with wide Francophone readership: “Ensemble, nous pouvons éradiquer la polio” Les Echos, one of Mali’s top publications: “Angelique Kidjo parle de la polio.” StarAfrica.com, a pan-African website: “World Polio Day” Nigeria The op-ed by Gov. Chibuke Amaechi appeared in a number of Nigeria’s most influential newspapers, as well as AllAfrica.com: Vanguard: “We must step up commitment towards eradicating polio” Punch: “How Nigeria can eradicate polio” Leadership: “Polio: The Task Ahead” AllAfrica.com: “Nigeria: We Must Step up Commitment Towards Eradicating Polio – Amaechi” Canada Globe and Mail Online- Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/25/on-world-polio-day-eradic_n_1028162.html Bill Gates blog Online- ONE Campaign: Jack Nicklaus blog:

SOCIAL MEDIA Rotary and World Polio Day were mentioned together 803 times. – Rotary was mentioned in nearly 25% of all World Polio Day conversations, followed by the Gates Foundation (14%) and UNICEF (1%).

“This Close” Ambassadors

Rotary conducted outreach to “This Close” campaign participants, asking them to share the Rotary PSA on their social networks to show their support for polio eradication. Through these ’ social networks, our ads reached more than 8 million people and resulted in 16,700 likes, 1,800 shares and 1,700 comments.

The #wpd11 hashtag resulted in 4,613 tweets that were sent by 3,614 users. This resulted in more than 29 million impressions. Out of these tweets, 3,424 were sent on October 24. Bill Gates helped support Rotary by sharing a message on his account and page about Rotary’s efforts surrounding that day. – The messages from Gates had the potential to reach his 4,244,039 Twitter followers and 701,973 Facebook friends

Thisclose.net The site has 7243 pledges (we started the push for World Polio Day with 2600 pledges made.  Total visits are up 224.78%, average time on site up 26.05 % (3:33 minutes) and our bounce rate is down 8.26% (at 54.29% right now).  From our 31,192 visits, 83,32% are new visitors.

INDEPENDENT MONITORING BOARD REPORT Proactive outreach to media ahead of the October Independent Monitoring Board report yielded Rotary mentions in the following stories: Reuters Canadian Press Wired Magazine

Rotary was mentioned equally with other organizations in coverage of the IMB report.

Share of voice in World Polio Day Media Coverage

ADVOCACY Bill Gates- Washington DC On World Polio Day, Bill Gates joined 80 Rotarians on Capitol Hill to affirm their joint commitment to fight this crippling disease and call attention to the historic opportunity we have to eradicate polio. The photo of Rotarians on Capitol Hill was featured in Bill’s social media, and footage appeared on ABC’s This Week. It also appeared on social networks, gatesfoundation.org, and rotary.org.

Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) contribution: Rotary was recognized in front of all of the press attending the funding announcement in Australia during the CHOGM meeting, by two heads of state:

Julia Gillard, Prime Minister, Australia: “I also want to acknowledge the efforts of Rotary in what has been a long-standing global initiative for change, and I'd like to remind everyone in this room that change is possible.”

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Canada: “The government of Canada is proud to have supported it for many years. When Rotary International first began the campaign that would lead to the 1988 WHO resolution to eradicate polio, poliomyelitis was still a devastating disease all over the world, crippling those it touched for life. Then, as mentioned, more than 350,000 people in 125 countries, mostly children, were infected.” Full transcript

Rotary was also mentioned in some media coverage surrounding the announcement: Australian AP (Perth Now) Vancouver Sun Radio Australia (click on listen- ) The $50 million contribution from the Australian Government was secured in cooperation with the Global Poverty Project. They worked with Rotarians in the Rotary Club of Crawley, among others, in successfully advocating to the Australian government in conjunction with the End of Polio concert.