There are numerous displays of crocuses all over Edinburgh.
Many are exclusively purple blooms, and now we know why. These areas of purple crocuses have been purchased and planted by Rotary Clubs from Edinburgh to the Borders and South West Scotland.
Why purple? India which is now polio free called on Rotarians across the world to help them with their mass immunisation programme.
To show that a child had been immunised their ‘pinkie’ was dipped in a purple dye. So the colour purple has been adopted to denote polio eradication across the world. In 1988 there were 350,000 cases of wild polio in 125 countries. On 10 March 2021 there were only two cases in two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The hub which Rotary set up in 1988 is now being commandeered to combat Covid-19 and in the past was used to deal with the ebola outbreak in Nigeria, yellow fever, flu and tetanus. While immunising children they have also been given Vitamin A along with a supply of soap for families.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
