Giving Doris’ Daughter a Shot@Life

By the time you finish reading this blog post, more than five children will have died from a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine. In the developed world, we easily take for granted the fact that our children are immunized and protected from diseases like polio, measles, and whooping cough. First birthdays, first steps, and first words are happy occasions, but we expect them to happen. In the developing world, 1.5 million children die every year from preventable diseases, robbing their mothers and fathers of these milestones.

Shot@Life, the global vaccination campaign of the UN Foundation, is working to stamp out these diseases and give parents and children the time together they deserve. Shot@Life’s champion organizers helped launch Shot@Life, holding over 50 events across the U.S., driving more than 100 media mentions of the campaign, and delivering messages to eight members of Congress.

Moms in Ghana were also hard at work. The GAVI Alliance, one of the international organizations Shot@Life supports, introduced vaccines against pneumonia and diarrhea in Ghana on the very same day that Shot@Life launched. The ONE Moms bloggers also provided coverage of the vaccine launch.

Here is a short video from Ghana, taken just hours before Shot@Life’s event on April 26. Thanks to Shot@Life’s champions – and all the friends and family they’ve rallied around this issue – more mothers like Doris will soon be free from worry about these deadly diseases.