Nine million children vaccinated against pneumonia thanks to the Child Vaccination Alliance of the "la Caixa" Foundation and Gavi the Vaccine Alliance
The Child Vaccination Alliance has facilitated the vaccination of approximately nine million children in 10 countries in Africa and Latin America, including Mozambique, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Central African Republic, Sudan, Bolivia and Tanzania. The initiative, launched in 2008 by the "la Caixa" Foundation together with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the collaboration of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). Together they have ensured that approximately nine million children have been immunised against pneumonia, a lung infection that is still the leading cause of infant mortality in the world today, as well as receiving the pentavalent vaccine that protects against diseases such as tetanus and diphtheria, among others.
The child vaccination programme is supported by contributions from the "la Caixa" Foundation, donations received from 3,700 companies throughout Spain and CaixaBank customers, as well as micro-donations from the public and contributions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"At the "la Caixa" Foundation we will continue to be committed to the project, adding our efforts to Gavi's work, because we firmly believe that we must all continue to work to prevent infant mortality due to lack of vaccines. It is our duty", emphasised the director general of the "la Caixa" Foundation, Antonio Vila Bertrán.
Renewed commitment to the fight against infant mortality
The collection is based on the matching fund formula, according to which all donations received are multiplied by four. This is because, for every euro donated, the "la Caixa" Foundation adds another euro, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation adds two euros more. In this way, in the last four years, it has managed to finance 100% of Gavi's demand for the pneumonia vaccine in Mozambique and an average of 25% in Ethiopia in both 2021 and 2022.
The "la Caixa" Foundation, Gavi's first private partner in Europe, has renewed its commitment in 2023 to the international organisation to double all contributions made to the alliance. The project also offers third parties the possibility of making donations. Thus, the initiative receives donations from companies as part of its corporate social responsibility. The opportunity for collaboration also extends to CaixaBank customers and employees, as well as to society in general, as a philanthropic initiative in the fight against infant mortality.
For its part, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which launched the Matching Fund initiative in 2011, also maintains its commitment to double the amount of all funds contributed to Gavi by 2023 to a limit of four million euros, while ISGlobal, which joined this business alliance as a strategic partner in 2014, continues to contribute its scientific and academic expertise to the project.
All the financial contributions made by the organisations, private companies and society in general are intended to increase the funds used to promote the immunisation of children in 10 countries in Africa and Latin America. The main focus is on the distribution of the pneumococcal vaccine in Mozambique and Ethiopia to fight against pneumonia, a lung infection that is still the leading cause of infant mortality worldwide and for which World Pneumonia Day is being celebrated this Sunday, 12 November.
Every 42 seconds a child dies of pneumonia worldwide
On 26 and 27 April, the "la Caixa" Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Every Breath Counts Coalition organised the 2nd Childhood Pneumonia Forum at CaixaForum Madrid, in which Gavi also participated. The event brought together more than 300 participants, including senior officials from 14 governments whose countries account for 60% of all child pneumonia deaths. The event was also attended by members of the Spanish government, leaders of UN and multilateral development agencies, major donors, NGOs, private companies and the scientific community.
The international forum served as a space for debate and analysis of the new challenges following COVID-19, in order to subsequently decide on actions and measures to be taken by the governments involved to reduce child pneumonia deaths and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal on child survival (SDG 3).
A pioneering alliance
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that brings together developing countries and donors, including governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other private sector partners, including the "la Caixa" Foundation as a leading foundation in Spain.
Since its inception in 2000, its mission has been to save lives, reduce poverty and protect the world against the threat of epidemics and pandemics. To this end, it has helped to vaccinate more than one billion children in 78 countries by the end of 2022.
The special feature of the "la Caixa" Foundation's Child Vaccination Alliance is the involvement of CaixaBank's customers, both companies and individuals, in a pioneering corporate social responsibility project in Europe. The Child Vaccination Alliance has the commitment of the CaixaBank Empresas and CaixaBank Banca Privada teams, as well as its entire branch network, which are key to dissemination and fundraising.
To this end, CaixaBank Empresas carries out intense awareness-raising work among its customers, offering them the opportunity to contribute to access to and quality of vaccines in developing countries as a social responsibility action that allows them to give back to society part of what they have received from it. For its part, CaixaBank Banca Privada promotes support for Gavi within the framework of its Social Value Project, which supports and encourages the philanthropic concerns of its customers.
The "la Caixa" Foundation has reached 10 countries in Africa and Latin America, including Mozambique, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Central African Republic, Sudan, Bolivia and Tanzania. In recent years, the "la Caixa" Foundation has focused especially on Mozambique with the pneumococcal vaccine against pneumonia, a disease that is currently the leading cause of infant mortality in the country. For its part, Gavi was chosen as one of 34 candidates for the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.
The "la Caixa" Foundation, more than a century building a better world
Giving opportunities to the people who need them most with the aim of contributing to building a fairer and more equitable society is the raison d'être of the "la Caixa" Foundation, created in 1904. This makes it the leading private foundation in Spain and one of the most important in the international arena. The priority of the "la Caixa" Foundation is the development of social programmes that respond to the great challenges of our time, such as the promotion of employment among groups with difficulties, the fight against child poverty, care for people with advanced illnesses and the promotion of active and healthy ageing. Medical research, training of excellence, culture and education, fundamental to promoting progress and equal opportunities, are other strategic lines of action of the Foundation.
