Putney Rotary Club is painting local kids’ “pinkies purple” to highlight the End Polio Now campaign.

Painting children’s little fingers is done in some countries to mark those who have been innoculated against the disease.

The painting is taking place at the Putney Exchange this Saturday and Sunday as part of a national Rotary Clubs awareness drive.

According to Rotary International, polio remains a threat in only four places: parts of Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Rotary and other organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), have helped eliminated polio everywhere else.

Members on duty at the Putney Exchange plan to tell visitors about this work and aim to raise funds at the same time.

Polio is a contagious, devastating disease that was virtually eliminated from the Western hemisphere in the second half of the 20th century.

At the height of the polio epidemic in 1952, nearly 60,000 cases with more than 3,000 deaths were reported in the United States alone.