The UNICEF USA Bridge Fund Helps Save Children’s Lives
Accelerated funding supports tetanus vaccination in Guinea.
Maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) attacks newborns in some of the world’s poorest countries, often due to unhygienic childbirth practices and inequities in routine immunizations access. Each year, more than 34,000 newborns die from MNT. Yet this disease is entirely preventable. The vaccine is cheap, safe, and highly effective. Since 1999, UNICEF and partners have immunized more than 151 million women against MNT, eliminating the disease in 44 countries. But MNT remains a threat in 15 countries including Guinea, where the 2014 Ebola outbreak severely taxed an already overstretched health system.
Aïssata Diaby gave birth to her first child in Tambayah, a remote Guinean village. At six days old, her baby stopped eating and developed a fever. Doctors at the nearest clinic weren’t equipped to treat tetanus and, during a frantic 3.5-hour drive to a hospital, Aïssata’s baby started convulsing, then died in her arms. “I haven’t been able to forget it, even for a moment,” she says.
Now UNICEF is launching a massive immunization campaign in Guinea, aiming to provide more than 3 million women with the first, crucial, round of tetanus vaccinations as part of a strategy that includes health worker training, safe umbilical cord care, and disinfectant distribution. The immunization campaign’s financing represents part of the Kiwanis Children’s Fund’s total $48 million commitment to UNICEF USA for The Eliminate Project — a partnership with UNICEF USA and UNICEF that aims to eliminate MNT worldwide.
The Bridge Fund accelerated $1.5 million to enable the swift purchase of vaccines and injection devices and cover operational expenses. Women require two additional doses to fully protect their babies, which means the campaign’s timing is critical. Any delay could leave newborns as vulnerable to tetanus as Aïssata’s. To date, the Bridge Fund has accelerated $14 million to help eliminate this horrific disease.
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Top Photo: Aïssata Diaby, who lost her first child to tetanus, with her younger siblings in Tambayah, a village in Guinea. ©UNICEF USA/Okuma
