Vaccinating children doesn’t just save lives. It is also one of the most effective ways of fighting poverty.This is one of the reasons why the GAVI Alliance was created, to help countries vaccinate an additional 370 million children and preventing 5.5 million deaths since its inception in 2000.This is also why GAVI has raised US$ 7.6 billion to ensure that an additional 250 million children will receive protection from a range of deadly, yet preventable, diseases by 2015. While the vast majority of these funds go towards purchasing life-saving vaccines, it is also important that a portion — more than $100 million in 2012, is fed into cash programmes to support immunisation services and to strengthen health systems. For many countries, this is thefirst step in providing the necessary infrastructure to ensure that the vaccines reach children.
Les enfants du monde entier sont capables de grandes choses. Cependant, pour y parvenir, ils doivent avoir les éléments essentiels à leur survie en quantité suffisante : nourriture, eau et soins de santé. À l’aide de ces ingrédients fondamentaux et des possibilités d’apprentissage, toutes les filles et tous les garçons peuvent devenir des membres actifs de leur famille et de leur collectivité.
It is unfair and unjust that every 20 seconds, a child still dies of a vaccine-preventable disease. The GAVI Alliance is committed to saving children's lives by increasing access to immunization in developing countries. Since 2000, GAVI has prevented more than five million children from dying of vaccine-preventable diseases. It should be noted 1.3 million of the five million children lived in Islamic states.
Children around the world are capable of great things, but in order to achieve, they must have enough of the basics: food, water and healthcare. With these foundations, and the opportunities to learn, all boys and girls can become contributing members of their families and communities.
I am glad to say that despite ongoing conflict in my country and the unstable security situation, there is vibrant optimism emerging among Afghani women and children. The latest data from UNICEF shows significant improvements in the health, education and well-being of women and children in Afghanistan. Many Afghans today have better access to water, school attendance is up for both boys and girls, and maternal and child mortality rates are down. There have been unprecedented declines in both maternal mortality and under five mortality rates in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
More than 700 global health leaders and practitioners representing 80 different countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe ascended upon Georgetown University's campus on June 14 and 15 to participate in the Child Survival Call to Action Summit. This summit was assembled by the governments of India, Ethiopia, UNICEF and USAID and brought in speakers like the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Eastern Congo Initiative's founder and actor Ben Affleck, health ministers and global health leaders.
