At the end of October, I attended the Blogalicious blogging conference. While I was at the conference, a United Nations Foundation campaign representative, Elise, walked up to me and started talking about the Shot @ Life campaign. It’s a United Nations Foundation funded campaign to prevent the unnecessary death of 1.7 million kids due to lack of vaccination. In America, vaccinations are so normal, that the average kid couldn’t even name measles, polio or pneumonia. But they still exist in some countries and it doesn’t have to be that way. According to the Shot @ Life website, it only costs $20 to vaccinate a child against pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and polio. It costs FIVE TIMES as much to treat children against those same illnesses.
I immediately thought, now this is a cause that I can get behind.
As someone who has traveled across Africa, Asia and Europe, I’m sensitive to issues that unnecessarily affect youth around the world. I found out from Elise that 75% of unvaccinated children live in just 10 countries – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, China, Uganda, Chad and Kenya. Although I’ve only visited China, many of these countries are on my “to visit” list.
So, I decided to use this space on this blog to spread the word about this movement. Check out the interview below with Devi Thomas, the campaign’s director.
Why did you name the campaign Shot @ Life?
The messaging around the campaign focuses on those everyday childcare moments. We are trying to give those kids is a shot of the everyday. A shot at having temper tantrums. A shot a being a picky eater. At the end of the day we want to give them a shot at childhood.
Children are dying everyday that we don’t see or hear from in the United States. Mothers are still grieving and losing children from preventable deaths. They are cheap preventable deaths.
Why are there still children in the world without access to the proper vaccinations?
Typically it comes down to lack of access. Vaccination rates are lower in rural areas. For vaccines to be administered to a child, you need a health care worker (except for polio). Additionally, vaccines have to be stored and refrigerated that keep them safe and keep them live. So when we go to small towns, we set up a table under a tree with a small refrigerator and mothers will walk for miles with their children.
Who do you think that this campaign resonates with the most?
Mothers are a very important target audience in this campaign. We’ve understood that from a survey of 2000 mothers, Shot @LIfe is the type of campaign that is necessary and it resonates with them. There is a lot of momentum building around this around American women and American mothers.
Many of the countries affected by the lack of access to vaccines come from countries within the African Diaspora. Are you looking to further connect with the African Diaspora community in the United States?
There is an interest in looking at the Diaspora community because the diseases are far more recognizable in the Diaspora community. The black community in the United States donates a larger percentage of income than white women do but they get asked to give less often. So we are hoping to get into dialogue more with African-American communities.
What are the five things that people can do to support this cause?
1. Sign Up - Learn more about vaccines and sign up to get our emails at http://www.shotatlife.org.
2. Donate – Go to our web site. Just $20 can provide a child immunity for a lifetime from four serious diseases.
3. Advocate – Talk to or write to your congressmen and the local media about how important this issue is and why you care.
4. Host at home – Use Shot@Life-in-a-bag tools to hold fundraising, advocacy and awareness parties in your own living room as part of your regular activities like book clubs, baby showers etc. Email info@shotatlife.org for more information about how you can host at home.
5. Talk to the Community – Connect us with national, regional and local associations who want to get involved.
What are you looking for in a Super Volunteer?
We are actually in the process and looking for our super volunteers. These are people who want to advocate and take this issue on in the next year. We work through our partners. We want to connect with the women in the communities who are making a difference. We are looking for people who want to advocate for this issue. Use this cause. We are building toolkits of these kits. If they are interested in hosting their own shot at life event, then contact us.
How will you measure the success of this campaign?
First of all it will be simple measurement. Two million children are dying a year from these deaths. It will not be us alone. Making sure that we are contributing to the millennium development goals. One of our metrics of success is how many Americans we engage with. So far we have 60,000 supporters.
Will you do me a favor and help out with this campaign?
