International polio-containment group meets in White Rock<\/p>\n
Published 12:00 pm Thursday, March 5, 2026<\/p>\n
The roadmap to a world permanently free of polio took a significant step forward this week in White Rock.<\/p>\n
White Rock\u2019s Ocean Promenade Hotel was the setting for a series of sessions as the Global Certification Commission Containment Working Group (GCC-CWG) concluded its quarterly face-to-face meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat.<\/p>\n
Winston Conyers, White Rock Rotary Club member and the PolioPlus campaign chair of White Rock Rotary, updated Peace Arch News about the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe meeting served as a critical platform for the GCC-CWG and the WHO Secretariat to align on the Sustaining a Polio-free World strategy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long-term initiative designed to ensure that once polio is eradicated, it stays eradicated, through the rigorous containment of polioviruses in laboratories and manufacturing facilities worldwide,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
During the visit, GCC-CWG members joined White Rock Rotary\u2019s weekly meeting, an opportunity to witness first-hand the the kind of grassroots advocacy and fundraising that have fuelled the global movement since 1985.<\/p>\n
Rotary International is a a foundational partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), while GCC-CWG Chair Arlene King is a Semiahmoo Peninsula resident.<\/p>\n
The meetings provided updates on the current status of the global program, Conyers said, adding that club members were \u201cso excited\u201d to welcome such a distinguished and high-profile international group to the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a WHO representative who came from Geneva, another member of the group came from the Netherlands, and two were attending from Atlanta, Georgia,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Meetings during this week emphasized that securing poliovirus materials is the final, essential hurdle in safeguarding decades of international investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAchieving safe and secure containment is an integral part of our long-term success,\u201d said King, following the White Rock Rotary meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dedication shown by the volunteers in White Rock is an inspiring example of how local leadership drives global health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WHO Secretariat, in turn, extended sincere gratitude both to the visiting delegation for their technical work and to Rotary volunteers worldwide.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile White Rock Rotary continues to champion innovative fundraising for the cause through the \u201cMiss Vicky Challenge\u201d led by Dr. Lee Harman and Conyers.<\/p>\n
The initiative features Miss Vicky \u2013 a refurbished 1931 Model A Ford \u2013 which has travelled thousands of miles across several continents to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the PolioPlus campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Vicky\u2019s endurance on the road mirrors Rotary\u2019s own persistence in the final miles of the eradication journey,\u201d Conyers said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International polio-containment group meets in White Rock Published 12:00 pm Thursday, March 5, 2026 The roadmap to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-516767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}