Polio. A disease that virtually the entire world has been ridden of. Most of us don’t think about this seemingly archaic issue. However, polio is still ravaging the lives of young children in underdeveloped countries like India.

Last week for Interact Club I saw a documentary about the efforts being set forth to eradicate polio in India. In the poor slums there were children who had contracted the crippling disease. They suffered from disabilities that essentially tore away any possibility of a normal life.

One child’s leg was completely limp. One man was shown struggling to walk down the street with aid of a walker while another had to pull himself up stairs. A woman from Texas told her story of how her brother died of polio at a young age. She spent her entire life trapped in an iron lung that breathes for her. On her 70th birthday stressed the importance of the vaccination effort in India to ensure that other children would not to spend their entire lives in a mechanical life supporter.

The compassion and determination of the volunteers helping to vaccinate made me think of how vital it is that we all do our part to ensure that every child has a chance at a full life. They would go to train stations and other public places, checking repeatedly that children had the purple dye on their pinkies, indicating that they had been vaccinated. A donation of a few dollars can afford multiple children a two drop oral vaccination, guaranteeing them a polio-free life.

It is so simple for those of us who are more fortunate to do our part for children who don’t deserve to have their lives ruined by a preventable disease. Interact Club will be holding a fundraiser during Culture Week towards the polio relief effort. Donate and have your pinky painted purple to give a child the chance at a full, meaningful life.