At $1.80 per vaccination, $500 can make a huge difference, says Kiwanian John Hunchak.
Hunchak recently accepted a donation from the John Paul II Collegiate KEY Club on behalf of Project Eliminate, Kiwanis eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus.
The Kiwanis International project goal is to save and protect the lives of millions of mothers and newborns. In partnership with UNICEF, Kiwanis is working to help eliminate MNT in the last 38 countries worldwide where it remains a threat, and pave the way for other interventions that will boost maternal health and child survival in developing countries.
To meet this goal, the Kiwanis organization has set out to raise a minimum of $110 million USD by 2015. On Monday, July 15, local Kiwanians will be at the Co-op Mall "elevator" selling burgers as part of the fundraising effort.
The leading causes of MNT deaths are lack of or limited access to immunization and pre and post-natal care services, limited or absent clean delivery services and improper postpartum cord care. Once the disease is contracted, the fatality rate can be as high as 100 per cent in underserved areas. The effects of the disease are excruciating.
Maternal and neonatal tetanus is easily preventable by a series of three vaccinations to women of childbearing age. If a woman is properly vaccinated with the tetanus vaccine, she will have immunity through the majority of her childbearing years, passing on her protection to her children. Babies born to mothers who have been vaccinated will be protected through the first two months of life.
In its first global campaign for children, the Kiwanis organization raised awareness for iodine deficiency disorders, the leading preventable cause of mental disability, and nearly $100 million USD for salt iodization, testing and monitoring and community outreach and education in developing nations. These funds are now at work in more than 103 nations and about 80 million children in the developing world will be born free of IDD this year. Kiwanis International says the project has been hailed as one of the greatest public health triumphs of the 20th century.
