My Daughter Has A Future

Yesterday my friend Hipstermom wrote about how her two month old baby had three jabs in one day and how unfair this seemed on such a little one. It did seem harsh but she is also grateful for the fact that her baby is now vaccinated. When the twins at Nursery went down with chicken pox I shrugged smugly - DD was vaccinated.

As a mum in Israel, I don't have to worry about mumps, measles, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitus A or B, diptheria, small pox, polio, tetinus, whooping cough and there are two more on the immunization record which I don't even know what they are as they are written in Hebrew with the Latin medical translation. For good measure DD and I both had swine flu shots two years ago as we flew to England during the scare. I wasn't concerned about being in England but the thought of sitting on a plane for five hours with the same air going round and round sent me running to the shot shop.

Last week I was tagged by Michelle at Mummy From The Heart to write this meme about the Save The Children campaign: Born To Die, which ends on June 13th (so you have to act now). I was supposed to have my daughter draw a picture of herself doing what she wants to be when she grows up, sign the petition, write a post encouraging everyone to also sign, and tag eight people.

DD is 2 1/2 and whilst I am extremely grateful that she has a future - the point of the picture, she ain't expressing any thoughts about it yet. (She did present me with a picture which she said was a triangle cheese - I'm not sure if she really wants to be one but I'm trying to dissuade her.) I half thought about giving it my own interpretation but, after signing the petition, I sort of forgot about it. Then this morning I saw that Gemma from Helloitsgemma has also tagged me for this meme. There's only so much guilt you can handle so here it is.

On June 13th in London, the UK will host a Global Immunisation summit. Save the Children aim to put pressure on those attending to increase funding for immunisation. As Save The Children puts it:

The jabs we take for granted in the UK are not available to 1 in 5 children worldwide.

Over the last decade, millions of children have been immunised – protection that saves two and half million children every year. That’s a staggering 7,000 lives every day.

But many of the most marginalised children from the poorest countries, who are at most risk of dying from diseases, are still missing out.

Summit: life and death moment for millions of children
The global immunisation drive led by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI) is the best way to end this injustice. If GAVI’s work is fully funded, 4 million more children’s lives could be saved by 2015.

So please sign the petition here. Whilst DD is showing all the signs of growing up to be a proper little madam, she could also become a professional jigsaw puzzle doer. Whatever, I fully expect her grow up and be something. Which is the whole point. Our children were born to be and do, not born to die.

I am tagging five US and Israeli blogging parents whom I follow religiously and love reading. I don't know what they will do with this but if there are any responses I'll link them in my blog.
 
Hipstermom in Israel
Raising An American in (duh) America
Creating Motherhood also in America
Jewish Single Mom By Choice in Israel
What Me Worry? A Midlife View of the MidEast from a father of teenagers in Israel