Four million children saved because of you: How do you feel?

Jun 14th, 2011 9:15 AM UTC
By Mike Henry

ONE members at the GAVI conference yesterday

For months now, we’ve been asking our ONE members to give it all they have on our vaccine campaign. We asked our members to use every advocacy tool and skill they had to make sure that we won this important fight to save 4 million children in five years. We all worked so hard to generate more than 150,000 signatures on our petition, we placed thousands of calls, we wrote thousands of letters and emails, and we used Twitter to make sure our voices were heard.

Because of your skill at advocacy, your hard work and a ton of determination, it worked. We won!

Yesterday in London, USAID Administrator Raj Shah announced that the Obama administration is committing $450 million over the next three years to the GAVI Alliance — the exact amount of funding we asked for. That money will help immunize more than 250 million children, averting 4 million premature childhood deaths.

Your hard work was incredibly effective but, you know what, don’t take it from me — take it from Administrator Shah himself! He was kind enough to share a video message to our ONE members on the US’ pledge to GAVI. (Hat tip to Nadeem Javaid for snagging this video).

Joseph Powell from our global policy team had a chance to congratulate Mr. Shah on the US GAVI pledge during a Q&A session this morning. Mr. Shah said he’ll be relying on ONE to help him get it through Congress. So you know what that means: we still have work to do.

And Bono, ONE’s cofounder, summed it up nicely in a quote from today’s press release:

“In most parts of the world diarrhea is a nuisance. In Africa, it can be a death sentence. Too many kids are lacking the medicines we can find at any corner drug store. Vaccines are a global health game-changer. And today, President Obama has said he is in it to win it. Along with strong commitments from others, the goal of saving four million kids in the next few years is within reach. The UK’s David Cameron deserves great credit for leading this powerful effort. Vaccines are simple, powerful, cost-effective tools that can save millions of lives. It’s crazy just how much sense it makes.”

As the US campaign director for ONE, I can’t tell you how proud I am of each and every one of you. All of you are champions!

It just goes to show that when we use our voices and work together, we can make amazing, lasting change in the world. So, give yourselves a well-deserved pat on the back and tell us how you feel in the comments below. Thanks to you, millions of kids around the world have a brighter future.

Photo courtesy of GAVI

TAGS: Big News, Featured Series, From ONE Members, GAVI, ONE App, Power of Vaccines