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Three times more women die from cervical cancer in the Pacific than in New Zealand. In Kiribati, every year 1 in 18 children die before their fifth birthday. Many of these lives could be saved by vaccines.
In collaboration with UNICEF, we are vaccinating 100,000 of the most disadvantaged children and adolescent girls across the Pacific to prevent:
In women, cervical cancer;
In children, severe diarrhoea caused by rotavirus and meningitis, blood infections and pneumonias caused by pneumococcal disease.
This project is running across the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Rotary District 9940 has a partnership commitment with the Hospitals Foundation, official charity of Wellington Regional Hospital, to raise $400,000 for two Whanau Rooms in the new Wellington Regional Children's Hospital – one on each of the surgical and medical wards.
Each one will have their own play deck, an indoor play area for patients as well as a dedicated area for whanau with a kitchen, lounge, dining and sleep room for parents/ guardians who have a child in ICU. This provides vitally important support at this critical time in a child’s life. Naming recognition for Rotary will also be given for these rooms for an initial period of 7 years from the date the new Children’s Hospital is open to the public.
This exciting project will contribute to ensuring that the Children’s Hospital will meet the needs of young patients, and their whanau, during what is likely to be stressful times in their life. This will help them not just for now – but into the future as well.
