No Parents Left Behind: Everyone Can Be a Life-Saving Hero!!
I am excited...: Everyone Can Be a Life-Saving Hero!! I am excited and humbled for the opportunity to participate again in the Shot@Life annual Blog...
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Everyone Can Be a Life-Saving Hero!!
I am excited and humbled for the opportunity
to participate again in the Shot@Life annual Blogust blog
relay. As I write this blog I feel such gratitude for
this relay!. I have loved this campaign since
its beginning in 2012 when I became a champion. Since then I have loved advocating, creating awareness
and fundraising for Shot@Life. Like I have
said before, this cause has resonated with me and it should resonate with
anyone who cares about human lives - especially children’s lives. This is very personal for me, because I
witnessed, firsthand, the pain and sorrow of mothers when their children were
suffering from easily curable illnesses.
I remember some mothers holding back their tears while cradling their dead
child in their arms. Many times I felt so
powerless to ease the pain in these mothers’ eyes, or to prevent a child’s death
because we lacked the most basic of medical care. It was so heartbreaking when we didn’t have
enough medicine and vaccines to administer, or when mothers came too late for
us to do anything to save their children.
This
quote has been an inspiration to me from my younger years until the present. When someone says what can I do? I am only
one; I said one is powerful and everything starts with one person wanting to
make a change and help. I remember that every time I questioned the disparities
I saw in my society and the extreme poverty in the remote villages and farms,
my father would tell me: “You can change this and make a difference.” It sounded crazy at the time - what little could
I do to make a difference in people’s lives? But I believed in his words and studied hard
in school. He died suddenly at the age of
38. I was eight years old and learned
very fast that, yes; every one of us can make a difference and do something to
make the lives of others better. I learned the one person can change things and
give hope. One hug, one smile or one act
of kindness can make a difference in someone else’s life.
I was
born in Mexico and went to nursing school there. One of my favorite things to do while in
school, and afterward, was to participate in many vaccine campaigns. As a young nurse going to rural areas with
containers full of precious vaccines was an incredible feeling, the whole
experience was full of excitement!
Children would run and hide from us not wanting the needles; and their determined
mothers would chase them down, and then line them up on the concrete school
basket ball courts or soccer fields where we would set up. Many other mothers came from neighboring
communities having walked many miles, riding horses, donkeys or using a canoe to
get there. Over and over I would hear the
mothers say “You need to get your shots so you will not get sick and die like
your brother…sister, cousin or friend”.
These mothers knew how important the vaccines were for their children. They knew that one (1) shot was the
difference between life and death for them, and did everything they could to
make sure they got vaccinated. As they would
gather and line up, I also saw many children with
distended abdomens where insufficient nutrition was evident. They looked anemic and some were hungry;
others were suffering from diarrhea, pneumonia, tetanus and many other illnesses. I promise myself that I will do everything in
my power to help and make a difference in others children lives.
Today I am
challenging you to use your power as one person who saves the life of one child. Do you know that every 20 seconds one child
dies in some poor country for lack of a vaccine for an easily-preventable
disease? Be a hero and save some lives by
donating a vaccine to a child in need every
time. YOU comment, share, like and repost this blog entry to any of
your social media channels with the hashtag #blogust. Every single one of those actions (comments,
share, like & repost) translates to one vaccine donated to a child around
the world by Project Perpetual, Shot@Life and The UN Foundation.
 |
| 1. Children in Fort Portal, Uganda (Fall 2012) |
 |
| 2. Children inTetxiquila,Veracruz, Mexico (Summer 2015) |
This month, during Shot@Life’s Blogust 2015—a month-long blog relay - some of North America's most beloved online writers, photo and video bloggers and Shot@Life Champions will come together and share inspirational quotes for their children.
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