A year after the pandemic disrupted the lives of many, World Forgotten Children Foundation (WFCF) set out to raise funds to aid in the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to developing regions that have been largely left out of the global vaccine supply. While citizens of developed countries may see the pandemic waning due to increased vaccinations, many in lesser-income countries lack easy access to COVID-19 vaccines and risk fatal outbreaks. Looking at the current vaccine rollout, only around 2% of COVID-19 vaccine doses obtained by countries went to low-income countries (Source: The New Humanitarian). The World Health Organization (WHO) said, “We can only achieve our targets if the countries and companies that control vaccine supply put contracts for COVAX and the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust- or AVAT- first for deliveries and donated doses.”
In March 2022, with the help of donors, WFCF was able to allocate funds via Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) to COVAX, which is an effort to “accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.”
More Information About COVAX:
COVAX is a program that makes up one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched in April 2020 in response to the pandemic. It was recognized early on that to end the global crisis, we needed to ensure the global accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines. This realization pushed global leaders to call for accelerating the development and creation of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostic equipment and available treatments and guarantee timely, fair and equitable access to them for people living in all corners of the world. The solution, according to Gavi, a global health partnership aiming to increase immunizations in low-income countries, was COVAX. This program is the result of inspiring global collaboration, with more than two-thirds of the world engaged. COVAX has the world’s largest portfolio of vaccines, and as such “represents the world’s best hope of bringing the acute phase of this pandemic to a swift end.” The main mission of the program is that all participating countries, no matter their income levels, will have equal access to the vaccine supply. The initial aim was to have 2 billion doses ready to be delivered by the end of 2021. For lower-income countries in COVAX, this was their only chance at access to the vaccines as well as other higher-income countries who could not secure bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers. For countries that could secure their own vaccine supply, COVAX reduced the chance of resurgence in places with no access to the vaccine (Source: Gavi).
How COVAX Has Helped:
According to the COVAX Vaccine Market Dashboard, the project has so far shipped more than 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to 144 participants, secured more than 17.6 billion doses globally and COVAX has confirmed 2.8 billion doses from funded agreements and confirmed donations.
We would like to thank our invaluable donors who made this donation possible. Without you, WFCF would not be able to accomplish its mission of supporting these communities in need.If you would like to help us in our mission, donate today to ensure that underprivileged communities get the support they need.
Sources:
https://www.gavi.org/covax-facility
https://www.unicef.org/supply/covid-19-vaccine-market-dashboard
