Polio eradication is within our grasp. But if we don’t eradicate the disease now, the risk of crippling and deadly polio outbreaks will continue to threaten the world’s children. You can help Progress and Rotary International get the job done by contributing to Rotary’s PolioPlus program or creating awareness of polio.

Challenges to Polio Eradication

Health experts agree that these primary challenges must be overcome in order to reach the goal of polio eradication:

Progress continues its focus on assisting the "Working Poor" through tax preparation and financial education. Lately we have been busy with an initiative funded by Filene Research Institute to determine the efficacy of the Savers' Credit for Credit Union clients. We have several CUs throughout the nation ready to start and several more interested. The program is designed to encourage savings in the form of retirement accounts, funded on a regular basis. This, of course, has the benefit of establishing accounts at the CU.

Our relationship with Filene Research Institute has expanded to include the newest project, Savers' Clubs. This initiative undertaken by individual Credit Unions throughout the country is designed to help qualified individuals get the Savers' Credit when filing their Federal tax returns. The idea is an expansion of the already popular tax program wherein Progress helps interested employers, including Credit Unions, help their own employees by providing free tax preparation services.

The Arizona Central Credit Union (ACCU) in Phoenix Arizona completed its first ever tax program with the assistance of the Arizona Credit Union League (ACUL) and Progress. Using the Progress model of employees helping employees ACCU embarked upon an mission to reach out to its own employees in the summer of 2010. They got the necessary training and certification from the IRS; worked closely with the City of Phoenix tax coalition to master the process of providing quality tax services to its employees.

St.Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix looks upon employee satisfaction as a real measure of its success. St. Joes, a consistent finalist in "The Best Place to Work" surveys by the local press and business organizations, simply wants to provide the very best in patient care and knows that it all starts with excellent employees.

One of the underpinnings of Progress is to help employers find innovative ways to help benefit their employees. Those employees targeted by Progress are generally the lowest paid and sometimes the most difficult to benefit in a tangible way. Progress has an answer when it comes to taxes. We encourage employers to embrace our tax program of providing free or almost free preparation services for the employees. In so doing we are able to access the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) plus other credits available to the employee.

I was supposed to be in Kenya today to celebrate with members of the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition (MERC), Rotary International and the Maasai community the completion of a major collaborative water project. One of the people who was integral to this process, Mr. Mpoe, was assassinated for standing up for land rights for the Maasai people. It was not a good time for me to travel to Kenya. The following came from our ground coordinator for the water project, "Yes, indeed this was the most tragic incident and totally unwarranted.

Representatives of Arizona Central Credit Union (ACCU), Arizona Credit Union League, City of Phoenix and the IRS are meeting to complete plans to open a tax preparation site at the ACCU.The idea for the site was presented to the ACCU last spring by Progress Director in Arizona, Craig Wilson,and funding was secured through the National Credit Union League. ACCU joins St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix in creating an even better place for their employees to work.