Kiwanis and UNICEF announce The Eliminate Project

Initiative will eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus in 40 remaining at-risk countries

©Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for UNICEF

From left to right: Kiwanis International President Paul Palazzolo,  UNICEF Ambassador and actor Téa Leoni, U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and Chief Executive Officer Caryl Stern.

NEW YORK, (June 26, 2010) — Kiwanis International has selected UNICEF to be its partner in a $110 million effort to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) globally by 2015.

UNICEF Ambassador Téa Leoni made the announcement on Thursday at the organization’s 95th annual convention in Las Vegas. The project will mobilize nearly 600,000 Kiwanis volunteers to help raise resources and awareness about MNT as part of their mission to serve the children of the world. 

This new support will allow UNICEF to immunize 129 million women who are at the greatest risk of contracting tetanus during labor and delivery.

"Kiwanis believes that no baby or mother should have to suffer the devastating effects of MNT," said Paul Palazzolo, Kiwanis International President.

A preventable disease

The World Health Assembly first called for elimination of neonatal tetanus, a preventable but highly fatal disease, in 1989. Ten years later, the goal was expanded to include elimination of maternal tetanus, as well.

With the newly announced Kiwanis partnership, UNICEF will have the power to reach the 40 remaining countries where the disease is still a risk.

"We couldn't be more gratified to work with such a committed and compassionate group of people," said Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which submitted the winning proposal for Kiwanis International’s second Worldwide Service Project.

The Eliminate Project

"The Eliminate Project" aims to provide an estimated 387 million doses of the tetanus vaccine to women of child-bearing age over the next five years.  But it endeavors to go beyond tetanus vaccination to forge a path for providing critical health services to some of the most marginalized and impoverished parts of the world.

"There are countless worthy issues you could have chosen," Ms. Leoni told the assembled convention. "You decided to tackle a public health crisis that plays out silently in much of the world. One that cruelly claims the lives of babies and mothers and that tears families apart."

The majority of mothers and newborns dying of MNT live in 40 countries located in Africa, East Asia and South Asia. MNT kills nearly 100,000 mothers and newborns each year. These are women who have not had the chance to be diagnosed or properly treated. Most have little or no access  to hospital treatment.

A track-record of global health successes

UNICEF and Kiwanis joined forces in 1994 on Kiwanis’s first global campaign for children - the elimination of iodine deficiency disorder (IDD), the leading preventable cause of mental impairment among children.

Today, about 70 per cent of people in the developing world have access to iodized salt, a tremendous increase from less than 20 percent who had access in 1990.  80 million children in developing nations will be born free of IDD this year — an accomplishment that ranks among the greatest health triumphs of the twentieth century.

During a video tribute played during the announcement in Las Vegas, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore noted the accomplishment shared by Kiwanis and UNICEF, acknowledging “a large debt of gratitude to Kiwanis.”

"I know you will be successful on your next journey," he told the assembled Kiwanians and UNICEF staff.

More information on The Eliminate Project to end deaths from MNT can be found at www.theeliminateproject.org.

Email