Deutsch Press Release
Berlin and Stuttgart, September 16, 2009"SMS against Polio" - ROTARY CLUBS BERLIN INTERNATIONAL (i. Gr.) and STUTTGART-SOLITUDE start SMS-charity campaign against child paralysis. The "Charity-SMS-Service POLIO" is now activated.
Beginning immediately, a SMS text message with the word POLIO sent to the number 8 11 90 will donate 5 Euro towards the Rotarian initiative POLIOPLUS. The amount is billed through the cell phone's invoice and directly goes towards the fight against child paralysis (also Poliomyelitis, or ‚Polio' for short). With a text message every cell phone owner can help the fight against Polio. If a SMS containing the text POLIO is sent to the number 81190 a debit of 5 Euro is activated on the next invoice, which directly supports the campaign against child paralysis (minus 17 Cents for technical services). In addition the sender merely incurs the cost of sending a SMS. Of course any desired number of text messages can be sent.
For over 20 years "A world without Polio" has been one of the driving goals of ROTARY. Within the POLIOPLUS framework ROTARY joins together with the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF. Since its inception the initiative has had great success. Thanks to extensive vaccination campaigns the number of new Polio cases was reduced by 99 percent: from 350,000 in 1988 to approx. 1,600 in 2008.
ROTARY was founded in 1905 in Chicago and is the oldest service club organization in the world. It is a secular, non-political organization joining over 1.2 million men and women of all vocations in more than 33,000 clubs worldwide, of which 967 clubs are in Germany. Under the motto "Service above Self" the clubs not only support their own charitable projects, but also contribute to larger common projects such as POLIOPLUS.
Further information on the ROTARY program POLIOPLUS can be found at www.polioplus.de.
Press-Contact:
Contact person for POLIOPLUS at ROTARY:Hans Pfarr, Rotary Club Ebingen
E-Mail: polioplus@rotary.de
Contact person for the "Charity-SMS-Service POLIO":
Tim F. Besser, Rotary Club Berlin International (i.Gr.)
Tel.: (030) 60 98 19 555, Email: presse@rotary-berlin-international.de