The trek which took place in Lagos State on the 26th of October 2019 was a 9.5kilometer walk that kicked off at exactly 7am from the Rotary Centre at No 8 Ladoke Akintola Street, GRA Ikeja. The walk which has over the years become a constant as part of celebrations to mark the World Polio Day which holds on the 24th of October every year, however this year’s walk witnessed more uniqueness and vibes as a bike-a-thon was incorporated into the walk with bicycles provide by Awabike as part of their support to the World Polio Day celebration. Residents around Ikeja axis of Lagos were kept in awedness has they witnessed an unusual Saturday; one in which the whole town was painted in the beautiful colours of the red and yellow coloured vests with the inscription of “Keep Polio @ Zero” as well the music, drums and sounds that filled the atmosphere accompanied by dancing and different body stunts.
The walk which kicked off at the Rotary Centre located at Ladoke Akintola Street saw participants route through OBA AKINJOBI>IPODO> AWOLOWO WAY>OLOWU>BANK ANTHONY >COUNTRY CLUB > OBA AKINJOBI and finally back to the Rotary Centre . The walk had in attendance over fifty Rotaractors, hundreds of Rotarians, friends and guest of the Rotary family from within Lagos and Ogun State.
The purpose of the trek was to create awareness in the community as to what Polio is about, how children can be infected, how to prevent polio infestation and spread. The World Polio Day was recommended by Rotary International to the World Health Organization(W.H.O) to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against Poliovirus and refuse to get a patent, which enabled the vaccine to be made available to everyone in the world, such act of good to the world should not go unrecognized hence the immortalization of Jonas Salk through the world polio day.
To ensure the safety of everyone, ambulances services were provided whilst LASTMA officials were also on ground to control the crowd as well as the vehicular flow to ensure commuters were not inconvenienced due to the walk.
