Transcript
Giving children routine jabs is particularly challenging in the Pacific due to under-resourced health systems and frequent natural disasters.
Many of the islands are spread across vast distances and it's hard to get to many communities.
Now Rotary Clubs in Australia and New Zealand have teamed up with UNICEF to introduce new vaccines in Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Niue and Nauru.
UNICEF's deputy representative in the Pacific, Vathinee Jitjaturunt, says they hope to bring down the rates of diarrhoea, pneumonia and cervical cancer.
"These three diseases are high in the Pacific, and [diarrhoea and pneumonia] and can nearly kill children in their first five years of live. And for women, there are really alarming rates of cervical cancer, so the HPV vaccine and prevent common forms of cervical cancer"
Ms Jitjaturunt says the rotovirus vaccine to deal with diarrhoea was introduced in Kiribati in 2015, and after two years, a study showed positive results.
"And we found that there was a reduction of hospitalisation rates of children under five with diarrhoea by around 40 percent. So you can see that the vaccine works."
The project named 'Give Every Child a Future' will also improve immunisation programmes in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Leole Malama-Prasad of the Rotary Club in Upper Hutt says the programme will benefit thousands of children in the region.
"In these countries, the governments simply cannot afford to pay for the vaccines where as we have a vehicle here to be able to provide the funding for that and then helping UNICEF delivering and ensuring that the children are all vaccinated and ultimately that means a better future for our Pacific peoples."
The project is part of Rotary's celebration of 100 years of service in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.
Mark Wheeler of Wellington Rotary says the immunisation programme was just one of a number of ideas put forward.
"My own club wanted pitched for portable water for every child in the Pacific, the Rotary Club of Auckland, wanted emergency housing, Melbourne was looking at eliminating dengue in the Pacific and the Rotary club of Sydney proposed this partnership with UNICEF to vaccinate 100,000 children in the Pacific."
This is Tiana Haxton
