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Salma Hayek, Spokesperson for the Pampers “One Pack = One Vaccine” Campaign
© TVC Group
In 2008, award-winning actress and producer Salma Hayek joined with Pampers to help UNICEF stop the spread of life-threatening but preventable disease. 2009 marked her second year as spokesperson for the “One Pack = One Vaccine” campaign in North America, which provides funding to help UNICEF provide lifesaving tetanus vaccines to pregnant women and women of childbearing age in the developing world.
As a mother, Ms. Hayek understands the importance of proper prenatal care. As the Pampers campaign spokesperson, the actress worked to help ensure that all women and their babies get the care and protection they need. The global Pampers campaigns will help UNICEF with funding for over 200 million lifesaving vaccines over the next three years, protecting millions of women and their newborn babies from maternal and neonatal tetanus.
The global UNICEF-Pampers partnership was announced by Ms. Hayek last October at a press conference held at the United Nations in Geneva. "The thought of losing a child to a disease which can be easily prevented seems unbearable, especially when it is within our power to prevent it," said Ms. Hayek.
A Trip to the Field
Last year, Ms. Hayek traveled to Sierra Leone with UNICEF and Pampers to witness firsthand the lifesaving impact the “One Pack = One Vaccine” program is having in the lives of women and children—as well as the deadly consequences of not receiving the vaccines.
One of the stops of her trip was the Binkolo Maternal Health Center, where women routinely receive proper medical care, including the administration of tetanus vaccines.
But Ms. Hayek also saw what happens when women don't have access to proper medical care. One of the women she met was Janeba, a young woman who had not been vaccinated against tetanus and tragically lost her first baby to neonatal tetanus. Thankfully, Janeba then received a series of tetanus vaccines, thereby protecting her against maternal tetanus, and has since had four healthy children.
© UNICEF
Salma Hayek visits a mother and her child at a UNICEF-supported Makeni health clinic in Sierra Leone.
Ms. Hayek also traveled to the Magoreh area of Sierra Leone where she witnessed the reality that most of the population—especially the women—of Sierra Leone face. Magoreh is far removed from any public health units, and women there have little access to no access to pre-natal healthcare and often do not receive vaccinations. They often must give birth in unsanitary conditions, where tetanus thrives. It is in places like Magoreh that the campaign to help UNICEF provide vaccines to pregnant women and women of childbearing age can make the difference between life and death for women and their babies.
"I am honored to work with Pampers and UNICEF to help raise awareness of this important program," Ms. Hayek has said. Together, Ms. Hayek and Pampers joined forces to enable UNICEF to help protect these women and their newborn babies against this preventable disease, as no woman or baby should die from maternal and neonatal tetanus.
