By Margaret Sheard…..
The Rotary Club of Kyrenia Liman organised a fundraising lunch on Sunday 5th June at the Villaggio Restaurant in Zeytinlik. The event 
was held to raise funds for Rotary International long term project of fighting Polio world-wide.and the proceeds from this event will go directly to Rotary International to the “End Polio Now” project.
We arrived at the Villaggio Restaurant in Zeytinlik, which we had never visited before, and were impressed with the 
lovely setting and beautiful views. The staff were putting the finishing touches to the area where we were to be seated so we had time to say hello to quite a lot of familiar faces and have a chat before settling down to a long lunch of mezes and lamb followed by melon to end. It was a very leisurely lunch and there was much conversation as we waded through the mezes which just kept coming and then the main course.
At the end of the lunch there was a raffle with 18 lovely prizes which had been donated for the event. We understand that 2,200TL was raised from this event which will go to the End Polio Now project.
Gradually after more conversation people started to drift away and we said our farewells with thanks for a very enjoyable afternoon.
Not forgetting the reason for the event, following is an extract from the Rotary Club of Kyrenia Liman leaflet which was available on the tables.
Today there are only three countries that have never stopped transmission of the wild poliovirus: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Fewer than 250 polio cases were reported worldwide in 2012, which is a 99% reduction since the 1980s, when the world saw about 1,000 cases per day. If we do not stay the course, experts say polio could rebound to 10 million cases in the next 40 years.
Many people probably think there is no such thing as polio nowadays but it has still not been completely eradicated and as it is a virus it is so important to keep working at ridding the world of this virus once and for all. It is organisations such as Rotary International which can help to do this so we were pleased to be able to give our support at this Rotary Club of Kyrenia Liman event.
