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World Moms Network

Connecting mothers; empowering women around the globe.

July 31, 2012

SOCIAL GOOD: The GAVI Global Tea Party in India

World Moms Blog is working with GAVI Alliance to create an international documentary to raise awareness of the importance for life-saving vaccinations for children in developing nations.

We plan to do this through the “GAVI Global Tea Party”, created, here, at World Moms Blog. A team of contributors from World Moms Blog host a party and discuss the significance of vaccines and plan on spreading the word to advocate and support saving the lives of chidden in developing nations.

I eagerly accepted World Mom Blog’s founder and Shot@Life supporter, Jennifer Burden’s, invitation to host a party in India at my residence because I believe in GAVI. I believe in what GAVI supports. I believe that every child should have a chance at life. I know that somehow saving a child’s life is very important in the evolution of the planet. It all started with an email from Jennifer with a very glamorous subject, “Would you like to be a movie star?” Wow, Yes, for this important cause I would, wouldn’t I?

I started planning. I had to first find a videographer. I put up a status messages on Facebook. I asked around to all my friends and made them put up status messages, too. This went on for a month, and I almost gave up. One day, a childhood friend and photographer told me that he knew a videographer who would be willing to help. So, Srinivas and I started talking and things clicked. The party was meant to be!

I called up a few friends and gave them the background of this party and more importantly, why I support this cause. There is at least one child dying every 20 seconds due to a vaccine preventable disease, and we could do something to stop it. The enthusiasm was contagious and all of them said yes to the party. I had a star guest for the party too – my own 90-year-old grandmother who is a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother too. Yes, oh yes, the party was taking shape!

I was still feeling nervous and so edgy that I emailed Jennifer at least 25 times on the day before the party. This wonderful woman replied to every one of the mails as soon as she received it. It must have been the middle of the night for her. Yes, she did not sleep the whole night, stayed up and calmed every one of my fears.

I made notes. I was absorbing all the information available about GAVI and vaccinations. I was worried about the conversation flowing around during the filming of the party. What if we came to a standstill, where no one was speaking? What if everyone started speaking about playdates and tantrums and picky-eating and we lost the main focus? What if? What if? What if?

In the end, the party took on a life of its own. The GAVI videos we saw were such great conversation starters. We saw a video about a mother losing her child in Nicaragua and another one about diarrhea and pneumonia in Sierra Leone. We take so much for granted here, but at least 45% of deaths are due to just these two diseases, which are apparently not even killer-diseases if managed properly.

My friends were moved with the Sierra Leone video. My fears were put to rest when I just listened to my friends speaking from the heart about how they strongly felt the need to support the cause of vaccination. I just had to allow them all to feel. The conversation then steered towards India being declared Polio free by WHO. My 90-year-old grandmother was the star of the movie, I should say. Look at this collage below to know how it all went.

Party with a purpose!

Party with a purpose!

Most of the guests took the spirit of GAVI back with them. They said they were going to speak about it with their colleagues and friends.

I should thank all my friends and my grandmother for the success of the party. Her presence and words were strong enough, and her wisdom was truly noteworthy. Her words set the tone for the party –

“One generation’s effort in strictly adhering to the immunisation schedule will carry on for all generations to come, to help eradicate a particular disease. That is how small pox and polio were eradicated in India.”

(In her children’s generation small pox was eradicated, and in her grandchildren’s generation polio was eradicated). In her times and her children’s time all this was done by only the government in whatever way it could, by the personal interest of some physicians and a few people only. But today she feels that organisations like the GAVI Alliance and Shot@Life with a great public appeal and huge voices are a god sent blessing, indeed.

GAVI affected everyone’s lives that day including our children. Check out the below photo of them chorusing, “We want a disease-free world.”

"We want a disease-free world,"the children chorus.“We want a disease-free world”, the children’s chorus.

I started viewing GAVI with a different perspective myself.

Indian Vedic texts say that the human life is the highest form of life and evolution at its peak. And blessed is a soul to be born as a human being and while he/she is given a chance at it, definitely efforts must be made to preserve life, nurture it and utilise it to the maximum benefit.

We had four generations of people assembling that day to help humanity and make this world a better place in their own tiny way. Though I hosted the party,though my grandmother’s wise words set the tone of the party, I think it was a team effort by all of us here –  World Moms Blog contributors, our fans and readers for supporting our causes of social good and advocating for organisations like the United Nations Foundation, their Shot@Life campaign and the GAVI Alliance. We are all here striving to make this world a happy, healthy and peaceful place.

This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Purnima, our Indian mother writing from Chennai, India. Her contributions to the World Moms Blog can be found here. She also rambles at The Alchemist’s Blog.

A team of World Moms Blog contributors have been hosting GAVI Global Tea Parties around the world to help launch an international grass-roots effort of advocacy for life-saving vaccinations for children in the developing world.  The parties are being filmed for a documentary. If you are also interested in hosting a party of your own, please drop us a mail at worldmomsblog[at]gmail[dot]com.   

Photo credit to the author.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the World Moms Blog RSS feed. Thanks for traveling with us around the globe!

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

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13 Comments
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Comments

  1. Maureen | Tatter Scoops says

    July 31, 2012 at 4:13 am

    Well done, Purnima, WMB and GAVI. Such brilliant program you are doing 🙂 Love the faces of the children.

    Reply
  2. thirdeyemom says

    July 31, 2012 at 10:20 am

    Great job Purnima!

    Reply
  3. Mama Mzungu (Kenya) says

    June 21, 2013 at 4:03 am

    Sounds like a wise grandmother you have and I can only imagine what she lived through – seeing both polio and small box eradicated in her life. Would love to hear more of her story! Great piece Purnima!!

    Reply
    • Purnima @ The Alchemist's Blog says

      June 21, 2013 at 4:29 am

      Kim, Thank you for your kind words.
      Oh yeah, you can imagine what India was like 90 years ago.

      And I love your Casting a wider net series too. You are doing a great job at that one!!

      Reply
  4. Olga @The EuropeanMama says

    September 10, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    Fantastic job, Purnima! Especially with all the anti-vac sentiment this is so important! And now let me see if I can get something like this toegether…

    Reply
    • Jennifer Burden says

      September 10, 2013 at 9:40 pm

      How fun it would be to add a party in the Netherlands to the documentary!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. SOCIAL GOOD: The GAVI Global Tea Party in India « The Alchemist's Blog – v 1.0 says:
    July 31, 2012 at 2:44 am

    […] this link to read about it on WorldMomsBlog. Share your love with me over at WorldMomsBlog with comments and likes. Thank you. The GAVI Global […]

    Reply
  2. Using a Global Social Media Network for Good | Content to Commerce | Social Media Marketing and Branded Content says:
    August 13, 2012 at 10:35 am

    […] we have filmed parties in the USA – New Jersey and another one in New York City — and also in Chennai, India. The next party to be filmed will be on the island of Bali in Indonesia. And our online friends in […]

    Reply
  3. havemomentum » “Using a Global Social Media Network for Good” says:
    September 20, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    […] have filmed parties in the USA – New Jersey and another one in New York City — and also in Chennai, India. The next party to be filmed will be on the island of Bali in Indonesia. And our online friends in […]

    Reply
  4. SOCIAL GOOD: World Moms Blog to Visit Uganda with UN Foundation | World Moms Blog says:
    October 16, 2012 at 1:00 am

    […] through our website, such as World Moms Blog contributors Nicole Melancon, Kyla P’an, Purnima Ramakrishnan, Denise Paredes, Maman Aya and Lady E. And, friends of World Moms Blog, Jodi Fendrick, Amy Pohl, […]

    Reply
  5. Guest Post: By Jennifer Burden @ World Moms Blog « The Alchemist's Blog – v 1.0 says:
    October 25, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    […] championing for the health of children around the world. In May, Purnima threw a private “GAVI Global Tea Party“, a grass-roots party developed at World Moms Blog to help raise global awareness for […]

    Reply
  6. 2012: WMB Year in Review & Blogcation! | World Moms Blog says:
    December 22, 2012 at 8:50 am

    […] to create a documentary around life-saving vaccinations, initiated World Moms Blog events in India, Indonesia and two in the USA in 2012! Here is a photo montage from the party in Bali, Indonesia […]

    Reply
  7. World Voice: How to host a GAVI-WMB Global tea partyWorld Moms Blog says:
    September 10, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    […] Some World Moms Bloggers have already hosted their own GAVI-WMB tea parties! Jennifer Burden, founder of World Moms Blog hosted the first party. Allison Charelston of New York did a very memorable party. Lady E of Indonesia did her party in a very scenic place with very beautiful china cups. From India, I did a very informal tea party with my neighbours. […]

    Reply

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