On the 16th April at 7:00pm, at the Artisan Café, 203 Upper Richmond Road, Local Putney resident, Leanne Hooper, will be hosting an evening dedicated to educating and inspiring Putney residents about the importance of eradicating polio and what we all can do to be more informed and actively engaged as we stand on the brink of eradicating the second human disease in history.

Her talk, just one week before many of our world's diplomats and leading philanthropists head to Abu Dhabi for the Vaccine Summit (23-24 April) as part of World Immunisation Week, hopes to bring the community together to ask Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for International Development, to help provide the necessary funding from the UK government for polio efforts and global eradication plans as outlined in the Endgame Strategic Plan.

The strategy and partnership is spearheaded by the dedicated efforts of several groups including: WHO, Rotary International, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From signing The End of Polio petition (www.theendofpolio.com) to meeting with your local MP to discuss government action, Leanne will discuss all actions big and small and open the evening for a presentation on The End of Polio campaign and Question and Answer discussion alongside 10 local businesses and residents.

Over the past 25 years, the UK has provided outstanding international leadership and thanks in part to British taxpayers, 10 million people are walking today who would otherwise have suffered polio paralysis. Polio cases have been reduced from more than 350,000 in 1998 to just 223 cases in 2012. We are 99% of the way there to eradicating the first disease in the 21st century – but we all must do our part with the final, and most critical work ahead.

Leanne Hooper said that "Ending polio requires the commitment of all levels of government, from local councils to heads of state. As a Putney resident, I call on all residents to support The End of Polio campaign, sign the petition and get behind ending what could be the world's first human disease of the 21st century for good. We are at a crucial moment in history and if we each do our part I believe we can do this in our generation."

Hailing from Canada, Leanne became a Global Poverty Ambassador in 2012, and became involved with this programme because of its vision to see a world without extreme poverty in a generation, alongside its campaigning work to see an end to polio. Over the last year, Leanne has delivered the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation to nearly 1,000 people including local residents at schools and organisations in Putney with the aim of letting people know how close we are to eradicating extreme poverty in a generation and what they can do to help. Leanne is determined to see an end to polio and feels like now is the time to act.

April 11, 2013