By Whitney Simon | Manager, Global Cause Partnerships
Nearly a year into the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it continues to perpetuate an unprecedented socioeconomic, humanitarian, and human rights crisis which is taking its toll on the most vulnerable worldwide. The global COVID-19 pandemic is overstretching health systems, exacerbating deep inequities within countries and across regions, and causing children to face widespread disparities. Alongside governments and global partners, UNICEF is committed to ensuring that decades of progress made in child health is not lost due to COVID-19.
With the biggest vaccine procurement, storage, shipping, cold chain and supply network in the world, UNICEF reaches almost half of the world children with over two billion vaccines annually. For this reason, UNICEF has been asked to play a strategic role of leading efforts to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines for 92 low-income countries and serve as procurement coordinator for more than 90 high-income countries.
On February 24, Ghana became the first low-resource country to receive free COVID-19 vaccines through this program. “This is a momentous occasion, as the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines into Ghana is critical in bringing the pandemic to an end," said UNICEF Representative in Ghana Anne-Claire Dufay. "The only way out of this crisis is to ensure that vaccinations are available for all. We thank all partners that are supporting the COVAX Facility to deliver safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to all countries quickly and fairly."
Thanks to your commitment to this work, UNICEF will ship more than 14.5 million syringes to more than 30 countries in the coming weeks. Your continued support will help ensure that in 2021, UNICEF and partners will deliver two billion vaccines, 165 million therapeutics and 900 million tests to low and middle-income countries in a safe and equitable way. As the pandemic continues, UNICEF is working with partners to reimagine and develop a world that is a safer and more equitable place for communities and children everywhere. In the words of UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, “what the world looks like for children and young people tomorrow is our collective responsibility today.”
In Partnership,
Whitney
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