During ONE Valentine’s week, ONE’s UK youth activists headed to Parliament to declare their love for life-saving vaccines. At ONE, we brought together voices from across the UK, including volunteers, charities and MPs for a jam-packed day of action to talk about Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Great to see @ella_r03 again campaigning on vaccinations. One of the best uses of the #UKAid budget. Saves huge numbers of lives and helps global health security. @gavi @DFID_UK @ONECampaign pic.twitter.com/KOr6jXgpqe
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) February 12, 2020
Gavi helps increase access to vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries. Shockingly, a child dies every minute from a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine. 2020 is a crucial year for Gavi, as they seek funding for the next five years of their work.
Whether they were from Guildford or Glasgow and Bromsgrove or Brighton, our volunteers had one common purpose: to get their MPs behind Gavi.
We kicked off our day of action with training sessions for more than 100 volunteers, covering what Gavi is and why it’s so important.
Thanks to my constituents, both called Megan, who came to Westminster today and explained the One Campaign for vaccinations to me. I’m delighted to give my support. pic.twitter.com/B7xvWvrER8
— Angela Richardson MP (@AJRichardsonMP) February 12, 2020
Then we heard from David Anderson, a senior nurse from UK-Med and a humanitarian worker. He spoke about the devastating consequences disease outbreaks can have on communities and beyond. Through funding from the Department of International Development (DFID), David has responded to several deadly outbreaks including Ebola and measles.
David spoke from the heart about his frontline experiences: “When I’m deployed to an outbreak of a preventable disease such as measles, it’s especially tragic. I treated many very young children in intensive care because of the severe chest infections and pneumonia caused by measles. It was a truly horrific and heartbreaking sight.”
“Here in the UK, we’re fortunate enough that most people have no idea how lethal measles can be,” he added. That’s thanks to regular measles vaccinations since 1988 in the UK.
Valentine’s Day cards
We also delivered Valentine’s messages from ONE supporters to more than 475 MPs.
What a #Valentine’s! Thank you to everyone that helped us declare our love for #Vaccines in Parliament this week. From our #ONEYouth that met their MPs to our supporters that took the time to write their MP a message. Through @gavi we can #ProtectTheNextGeneration! pic.twitter.com/xaBPuMhHLR
— ONE UK (@ONEintheUK) February 14, 2020
MPs love to hear directly from their constituents about the issues they care about, and we had lots of positive responses from MPs to the messages of support for Gavi in their Valentine’s cards. Some remarked it was the only and best card they would receive this year.
Gavi’s upcoming replenishment
On 3-4 June, the UK is hosting the Gavi replenishment conference in London. World leaders, private businesses and philanthropists will gather together to pledge vital funds to invest in improving access to vaccines to help end preventable disease for good.
Gavi has an ambitious goal of raising at least US$7.4 billion in additional funding, which will help Gavi and its partners vaccinate 300 million more children and save up to 8 million more lives.
Since being founded 20 years ago, Gavi has already helped save 13 million lives. And with your help, Gavi can achieve even more.
Sign and share our global petition below asking world leaders to fund Gavi’s incredible work. Together we can help make the world a healthier place for everyone.
