Thirty-two-year-old polio-survivor Gautam Lewis who lives in London will travel to his birthplace of Kolkata India to help in the effort to eradicate polio – a crippling and potentially fatal disease that is still endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

After learning about the commitment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a partnership of UNICEF, the World Health Organization, Rotary International and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Gautam was inspired to help the campaign to eradicate the disease in India and worldwide forever.

“Full Circle,” an exhibition of thought-provoking photographs centered on GPEI final stand against polio will take place on 4^th December 2009. It will be held at Gaganendra Shilpa Pradarshasal. Kolkata, India. Full Circle will depict the valiant fight against polio in India through the photographs of Gautam Lewis.

Full Circle will tell the extraordinary story of Kolkata-Born Gautam Lewis’s emotional journey back to Kolkata to take part in India’s epic polio immunisation campaign. Children are particularly at risk and Gautam was just one among many millions to contract the virus

The photographic exhibition will be open for one week from 4^th December through 7^th December 2009. Representatives from Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity, Rehabilitation Centre For Children, Child In Need Institute and Sanchar will be present, as well as several prominent citizens of Kolkata.

Abandoned after contracting polio at the age of three, and raised by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, followed by two more years of operations at the Rehabilitation Centre for Children. His life might have remained one of grinding poverty - had he not been adopted and taken to live in privilege and comfort in Britain. A stark contrast to his days as one of India’s poorest children. Gautam’s motive for this effort is that he is passionate about experiencing life to the full and enabling others to do likewise. His passion stems from his early childhood and disability, when he learned how it felt to have few opportunities due to poverty and geography. He was lucky and escaped poverty as destiny but is so aware how many others never get the break.

The number of polio cases reported annually has decreased by over 99% – from 350,000 in 1988 to 1,625 cases in 2008. Massive efforts to eradicate polio in the last 20 years have resulted in the number of endemic countries dropping from 25 to just 4 today: Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria.

In spite of continued collaborative efforts of the State Government of West Bengal, WHO and UNICEF to ensure that each and every child is immunized and protected against Poliovirus, there are still pockets of resistant households in high-risk areas of West Bengal where parents are reluctant to let their children be vaccinated against Polio. Gautam realized that these resistant parents and caregivers could relate to his early childhood and accepted Oral Polio Virus vaccine as a result of his advocacy. These parents and children who accepted vaccine after meeting Gautam will be invited for this exhibition. This will increase confidence and visibility within the underserved vulnerable communities and will spread the message by word of mouth within the communities.

Full Circle will highlight the achievements of the Indian Government, and endorse their commitment towards the completion of the polio eradication campaign. The weeklong photo exhibition, is being jointly organized and funded by The Prabha Khaitan Foundation (a Kolkata based NGO), UNICEF Office for West Bengal and Radiant Capital (private equity firm in UK and India)

Gautam was recently presented with the prestigious “Asian Leadership in Charity” award at the annual Asian Who’s Who dinner at London’s Dorchester Hotel for his work. Gautam has had great opportunities in his life. He believes that his calling is to help others less fortunate and celebrate in the spirit that the sky is the limit.

Gautam collaborated with Carol Naughton to produce the Peace of Art show in London.

Peace of Art Gig (Peace of Art ) took place at the University of London Union (ULU) on Tuesday 4 November 2008. That day had been chosen as it was the centenary of the birth of Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, who launched the WMDAP (Weapons Of Mass Destruction Awareness Program) spent most of his life working for a world without war and nuclear weapons.

In conjunction with the Pugwash Conferences, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament. November the 4th 2008 was also the US elections - start of a new culture of peace - and thankfully a new President.

Damon Albarn of Blur talked about his literary influences before presenting the Written Word award and Rusty Bradshaw of Razorlight gave out the award to the winners of the music category. They will be performing at this years Glastonbury Festival, at the Blazing Saddles stage, along with The Futureheads. So it was great to see Geoff Martin, the Leftfield stage organiser, present the special invite to the winners, from Canons High School in Edgeware for their song “Walk Away”.

Around 130 young people, along with teachers, parents, friends and invited guests gathered at ‘The Venue’ in the University of London for the Peace of Art Awards Ceremony.

These are the rough timings for Get up Stand up - which is part of the WMD awareness programme at Blazing Saddles stage, Glastonbury 2009, on June 27th.

4.35 Ivan Brackenbury
4.55 Ed Byrne
5.15 The Futureheads
5.45 Music contest winners from Peace of Art ( Canons High School )
6.00 Tony Benn MP
6.10 Marcus Brigstocke

Come Clean Website

Tourists taking snaps of the Houses of Parliament got a little something extra in their photos during the weekend of 21st February, when Rotary illuminated the iconic building with the words End Polio Now.

The dramatic message – Rotary’s pledge to rid the world of the crippling disease – was projected on to the structure on Saturday (21 February) as part of an international initiative to encourage the world to get behind the final push to eradicate polio from the four remaining endemic countries.

Other buildings being illuminated in the week of Rotary’s 104th birthday (23 February) include the Sydney Opera House, the Coliseum in Rome, Cape Town, the prestigious Culzean Castle in Glasgow and High Falls in Rochester New York.

Is eradication possible? Is it worth the enormous cost?

Newshour on the BBC World Service brought together public health experts with very different opinions to debate the issue.

Dr Bruce Aylward is director of the polio eradication programme of the World Health Organisation and Dr D.A. Henderson of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center led the WHO’s successful effort to eradicate smallpox.

Newshour also heard from Nigeria, one of the countries where the polio virus still thrives and from Gautam Lewis, a British pilot and a polio campaigner who suffered from polio as a young child in India. Gautam has spent the last few years assisting Rotary International in their vision for a polio free world.

Listen to the debate, courtesy of the BBC (25 mins 29 secs) / first broadcast 21 February 2009 ( we have added a slideshow to go along with the radio debate)

Click here for more BBC World Service news programmes

Part 2

PASSPORT FROM POLIO has been scheduled to TX on Al Jazeera English on February 3rd 2009
With the global repeat pattern, actual times in GMT are:

TUE 03 Feb 10:00, 19:00; WED 04 Feb 06:00, 14:00; THU 05 Feb 03:00

23 years ago British Music manager, photographer, pilot and polio survivor Gautam Lewis was adopted by a young dual national ( British / Irish ) volunteer worker from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Kolkata and brought back to an affluent life in London.

‘Passport From Polio’ tells his extraordinary story and follows his emotional journey back to Kolkata to take part in India’s epic polio immunisation campaign and find out what his life would’ve been like had he stayed.

“Part of me thinks it’s brilliant that I had polio because the rest of my life wouldn’t have happened.”

Still dependent on crutches from his own battle with polio, Gautam Lewis is now an ambassador on behalf of Rotary International for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The battle to wipe polio from the face of the earth is the largest public health initiative the world has ever seen. If it fails, more than 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years.

Polio is a devastating disease that still exists in some parts of the world, despite an unprecedented global health campaign to get rid of it.

Children are particularly at risk and Indian-born Gautam Lewis was just one among many millions to contract the virus. Raised by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Kolkata, his life might have remained one of grinding poverty - had he not been adopted at the age of seven and taken to live in privilege and comfort in Britain.

Twenty three years on, Gautam leaves his London home and returns to the country of his birth.

( if the more button below is not working, please click on the post title left of the video )

India is one of just four countries in the world where polio remains endemic and Gautam travels back to take part in National Immunisation Day when, it is hoped, more than 75 million children will be vaccinated.

The battle to wipe polio from the planet is the largest public health initiative the world has ever known - poised on a knife-edge between success and failure.

If it fails, more than 10 million children will be paralysed in the next 40 years.

Cases of polio have declined from 1,000 a day to just 2,000 a year. Endemic polio has been erased in all but four countries - India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Despite the utter chaos in Somalia, polio has been eradicated; in Afghanistan, mediators negotiate ceasefires with the Taliban to get children vaccinated.

But India is the key - it still has the highest number of polio cases in the world.

So far it has cost $5 billion and involved 20 million vaccinators across the world. But all this money and effort could be wasted if the disease is not now erased forever.

As long as polio exists in one country, every country must keep vaccinating. The Gates Foundation has just promised $100 million of the $200 million needed to fund the final push towards global eradication.

“If we don’t eradicate it now we never will - all the energy and commitment, all the billions of dollars will have been wasted. The virus will have won. It is an unbearable thought,” said Jonathan Veith from WHO.

It is an international story of epic proportions that highlights the problems - and achievements - of an extraordinary global collaboration.

Gautam himself contracted polio when he was 18 months old living in the twin city of Howrah & Kolkata in India. At the time one in five children in the city died of the virus. Gautam not only survived, but went on to have an eventful career in the music industry in th UK before setting up a flying school providing free training for disabled people.

From street to advocate, this is his story as told to Ruby Russell… to read the rest of the story please visit foto8.com by clicking here…

Gautam Lewis who has been back to India where he was abandoned as a child to take part in Rotary Internatioal’s mass polio immunization campaigns has received ‘Asian Who’s Who’ Charity Award 2008.

The Award was presented to Rotary International’s Polio Ambassador Gautam Lewis at Asian Who’s Who International’s 21st annual book launch and awards ceremony which took place at a glittering gala dinner in London’s Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, on Friday, 24th October, 2008, attended by more than 300 guests, including Asian business tycoons, politicians, peers and celebrities.

Gautam Lewis said: ‘I started of life abandoned on the mean streets of Kolkata because of polio and as an adult have gone back to help eradicate polio. To receive this Award is a great honour and I would like to acknowledge everyone at Rotary for the work that is being done to end polio. I am accepting this award on behalf of all of the Rotarians and people involved in this global goal to eradicate polio.’

BBC News Channel had exclusive live coverage of the event, including live broadcasts and interviews with Award winners and guests. Presenters Matthew Amroliwala and Riz Lateef hosted the event.

Jo Rotblat was a nuclear scientist. He helped to make the first atomic bomb. But for decades thereafter, he campaigned to control the powers he’d helped unleash. Until the last few months of his long life, he pursued this aim with the dynamism of a man half his age, inspiring others to join the cause.

In conjunction with the Pugwash Conferences, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament.

November the 4th is also the US elections - start of a new culture of peace - even if it is not Obama!

London, Oct. 25: A 31-year-old man, dumped by his parents outside Mother House in Calcutta when he was three because he had polio, last night won an award in London for his polio alleviation charitable work in Calcutta.

At the annual Asian Who’s Who dinner at Dorchester Hotel, Gautam Lewis, who thinks his original name might have been Gautam De, struggled to the stage on crutches to the loudest applause of the evening and collected a prestigious award for “Asian Leadership in Charity”. read the rest of the story….