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 The Brattleboro Rotary Club and the Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary Club are raising money and awareness to an effort that is fighting polio, a crippling and sometimes fatal disease that still paralyzes children in parts of Africa and Asia and threatens children everywhere.
On Saturday, May 2, 2009, the two Rotary clubs will be sponsoring the first annual “Indian Film & Food Festival,” with all proceeds benefiting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
The GPEI is spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Polio has been diagnosed in 1,173 people in 16 countries so far this year, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative <http://www.polioeradication.org/casecount.asp>; , a group comprising the WHO, Rotary International, UNICEF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before the partnership was established two decades ago, polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children in more than 125 countries annually.
Two award-winning Indian films, “Monsoon” and “Outsourcing” will be shown at the Latchis Theatre from 3:30 to 6:30PM. Then, a tasting of Indian cuisine will be served at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center from 6:30 to 8:30PM.
Tickets to the Indian Film & Food Festival, which can be purchased at Latchis Hotel, Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, and Vermont Artisan Designs & Gallery 2, cost $25 each. Tickets to the films only cost $10 each.
Rotary, a humanitarian service organization with nearly 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas, made polio eradication its top priority in 1985. As the volunteer arm and lead private sector contributor in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), Rotary has since contributed nearly $800 million, and its members have logged countless volunteer hours to help immunize more than two billion children in 122 countries.
For more information about the “Indian Film & Food Festival,” visit www.brattlebororotaryclub.org <http://www.brattlebororotaryclub.org>;
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