The Rotary Give Every Child A Future project to introduce three vaccines into nine Pacific Island countries, reached a significant milestone this month (March 2020) with the approval of NINE Global Grants by The Rotary Foundation. These grants, one for each country for the first year of the project, have a combined value of approximately US$1.3 million.
Global grants are made up of Rotary club fundraising and Rotary District Designated Funds which are matched by The Rotary Foundation’s World Fund by a minimum of $15,000 and maximum of $400,000.
This means RGECAF can now move to the implementation phase of this major public health initiative in the Pacific. Through our collaboration with UNICEF 100,000 women and children will benefit individually. Saving lives and saving families. In addition, the project will significantly strengthen health systems in each of the nine countries providing a legacy of improved healthcare.
RGECAF was launched by Rotary Australasia to celebrate 100 years, in 2021, of Rotary International in the region. For three years Rotary will fund rotavirus, pneumococcal and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for Pacific Island children in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, and support vaccine programme delivery in these countries plus Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Niue and Nauru.
Implementing new vaccines into a country’s immunisation programme is very expensive. This is the phase RGECAF is supporting. With commitments from governments to continue the funding these vaccine after three years, this project will see children protected from life-threatening diseases, and families protected from loss of the mother to cervical cancer, for generations to come.
These grants are a huge boost to the project, but RGECAFs success remains dependent on continued fund-raising over the next 2-3 years.
