The fight to completely eradicate polio across the world has been a key mission for Rotary Clubs for over 30 years, and one of Sampson’s local members, Johnny Hamilton, is living proof of that club’s global presence, having traveled to India to help fulfill that mission.
Hamilton and his late wife, Margaret, made the journey back in 2010 as part of the inaugural Rotary travel group who went to India to administer drops of polio vaccine to children in that country.
This past Thursday was World Polio Day, recognized on Oct. 24. The day was honored here in Sampson with a banner hanging, and photos with officials from thecounty’s Health Department, city of Clinton and Rotary members from both clubs — the Clinton-Sampson Rotary and the Clinton Rotary. Hamilton was among those who came out to show support for the cause.
With World Polio Day, and Rotary’s works against the illness, being recognized, Hamilton shared the story of his journey, one that took him far away from home but one that aided in the battle to end polio.
“Going over there, oh, it’ll change your life,” Hamilton attested during an interview last week. “We think we have poor people here, no we don’t; they really have poor people,” he stressed. “We went out in the villages to administer the vaccine but it was really a photo op so we could come back and talk about it. They have two million people doing the vaccinations, and it was just a simple two drops in each kid’s mouth, for anybody five and below. They used to do it about twice a year. These days, it’s already basically declared disease free, but I tell you when we went it was like a different world.”
Halfway across the world, Hamilton said he encountered polio victims and the sight of children suffering from its impact. Polio is a paralyzing disease most common in children under the age of five which also attacks the nervous system.
“Did I do something over there?” he asked rhetorically. “No, I didn’t do anything, really. I went over, I went through and got my little picture of me giving the vaccine. It was interesting, because there were small kids bringing small kids to get it. Talk about vaccines, people here talk all about anti-vax, but over there, they didn’t question it, not once.
“You had young girls with babies in their arms, but there was no hesitancy because if they don’t get it, they knew what could happen. We did see a few people that had polio,” he noted. “One of the strangest things that was really unusual, as you know, we got leather on our shoes, right. But, over there, there were some affected by polio moving around on their hands, and they had leather pads for their hands just so they could move around.”
Hamiltion and his wife became part of that inaugural group traveling to India simply because they heard about the opportunity and took advantage of it.
“I just heard there was an opportunity to go, and it really came from Pat Green, who was in the other club,” he recalled. “She was the area governor at the time, and she told me about it. I jumped at the chance. My wife wasn’t a Rotarian but they said she could go with me as long as we paid her way.”
While reflecting on their time there, it brought back a fond memory of his wife and how the people of India flocked to her.
“My wife has died since then, but she was the one who, when we went to the square, people gravitated towards,” he said. “Margaret has always been this caring person and people recognize it; they were flooding to her. I was over here with the vaccine but they were all around her. I guess we all can recognize that kindness in people. She was that way, and people just responded to her. Even though the vaccine was only just two drops, that’s all it was, but they wanted her to give it to them.”
Hamilton said another highlight of the trip was seeing all the different members of Rotary clubs from across the world participating, people from all walks of life, all classes, working side-by-side, dedicated and being the boots on the ground to help people in need.
“Rotary people over there — and most countries, except the United States and maybe in England and Japan, — to be in one of those clubs, you’re considered one of the elites,” he said. “I mean, one of them had a party, he was a billionaire, and he flew everybody to Bali, rented a whole big estate and all that stuff. There’s a lot of people over there that do this and they’re all Rotarians.”
The elites, he said, “actually go out and do the vaccinations, too. They do the work and they contribute the money,” Hamilton said. “So, we went and it was our district that sponsored i,t and we started it. Our district governor back then wanted to do it and so we went.”
That was over a decade ago, and Hamilton reiterated that today, in 2024, India has been practically declared polio free.
“Back then — that was the last year that there was a major case,” he said. “After that, you have to go three years being basically disease free, meaning no cases in three years, and back then there were four countries suffering from a polio endemic. There was India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Since then we’re down to just two, which is amazing because when we started out in 1985 there were 300,000 cases a year.”
“That’s not to say there’s not cases, but there are not wild cases and so there’s no endemic there,” he added. “Again, there’s just two endemic cases which are in Pakistan and maybe in Afghanistan.”
With only two other countries left with serious polio cases, Rotary steps ever closer to completing its goal of eradicating the disease. When that time comes, Hamilton said he’s positive Rotary will champion a new cause.
“As a said, do you feel like you did something, to me not really, because you went over there for people to see you, for you to see it, then to come back and tell the people about how we went out to the villages,” he said. “That said, I’m so glad we’ve got to this point where we’re almost through this now. What Rotary International will do after this, there’s no telling, but I know they’ll do something and find a project. I mean, they’re doing clean water stuff right now. But, you know, it’s going to be something to try to help somebody and that’s what most civic clubs are, they’re charitable organizations.”
Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.