Five years ago today, my husband and I brought Camila into this world. She was healthy as can be, active and awake from day one, and loved and taken care of with an obsession characteristic of first-time parents.
Every year she’s hit her milestones right on target and continues to mature into an intelligent, creative and loving girl. Every year on August 18th we celebrate her life with a party of some sorts — cake, a piñata, friends, games and plenty of gifts. What we never do is really and deeply recognize just how incredibly blessed we are to have these annual celebrations with her.
Until now.
Thanks to Shot@Life and the United Nations Foundation, I’ve learned that, unlike my daughter, most children in developing countries never make it to celebrate their 5th birthday because they lack basic medical care and the routine vaccines that we have ready access to and may even, in radical cases, take for granted.
The exact and overwhelming figure would be that 1 in 5 children around the world lack access to life saving vaccines. In fact, immunization saves the lives of 2.5 million children every year.
To put the above statistics into perspective, it means that the number of kids that die every year from preventable diseases in developing countries is nearly equivalent to half the children entering kindergarten in the U.S.
Now that really brings it home for me because, not only is my daughter turning 5 today, but she’s also entering kindergarten on Monday. She’s one of the lucky ones around the world that has access to vaccines and has gotten to celebrate all her 5-years-of-life milestones.
Today I ask you to make your comments count and help me celebrate my daughter’s birthday. Help me create with this post a living testament that Camila’s 5th birthday will be one to be remembered, because the real gifts she receives will be your comments and the joy to know each one left here through the end of August will be matched with a $20 donation* — what it costs to give one child four life saving vaccines and help them on their way to celebrating their fifth birthday and first day of kindergarten.
Your comments in the last three and a half years have meant the world to me. You’ve been part of my girl’s evolution as a bilingual princesa. You’ve held my virtual hand when it’s gotten tough. We’ve laughed together at the nuances of our shared challenges. You’ve celebrated our triumphs. Now, I ask you to celebrate my daughter’s life with a comment and a shout out to your friends to join the party. A simple “Feliz Cumpleaños” left in the comments below will not only light up Camila’s face now and for the years to come when I show her this, but it will also become a $20 donation that will give one more kid a real Shot@Life.
You know we all like a good fiesta, let’s make this a huge and memorable one!
And if you want to make it even bigger, once you’ve commented here, head over to Jenny Eckton of Formerly Phread who passed the Blogust baton to me with her inspiring post “Help the Child, Help the Mother.” Then, follow the relay tomorrow over at Ilina Ewen’s blog, Dirt & Noise. Every comment here, there and on all 31 posts until August 31st will count towards our goal. You will make it count.
¡Gracias!
*This post is inspired by Shot@Life, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation that educates, connects and empowers the championing of vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries.
During Shot@Life’s Blogust: Blog Relay for Good, 31 bloggers, one each day in August, are writing about people from our communities who have inspired us. Every comment on this post and the 30 other posts will be matched with a $20 donation (up to a maximum of $200,000). That’s 10,000 comments. And 10,000 children. $20 is what it costs to give one child four life-saving vaccines to help protect them against measles, pneumonia, diarrhea and polio. A child dies every 20 seconds from a vaccine preventable disease. We can help stop this.
You can learn more about Shot@Life by joining their email list, following them on twitter or liking them on Facebook.
Want an easy way to share and help us reach our goal faster? Just click to tweet this:
Happy Birthday!!!! May all your birthday wishes come true
Feliz cumpleaños Camila, que pases un dia fenomenal y que Dios te vendiga con muchos años más.
I hope your beautiful little girl had a wonderful birthday and I hope your comments keep on rolling in to support an incredible cause!
Happy Birthday! Feliz cumple!! What an awesome way to celebrate your birthday!!!
Happy birthday princess!!
Feliz Cumpleaños Camila!
Happy birthday Camila!
Congratulations on your 5th- and on having had the luck to be born into such a great family!!
What a beautiful way to celebrate a beautiful day! Happy birthday!
Happy and Healthy 5th birthday!
What a thoughtful birthday gift! xoxo
Inspiring! Happy 5th B-Day!
Happy birthday to your girl!
What a wonderful idea! Feliz cumple, Camila!
Feliz cumpleaños Caminar!
Happy birthday, Camila!
Happy Birthday to your darling daughter & what a wonderful thing you and all the other bloggers are doing! Camila will definitely look back at this particular birthday and will know just how much her mami cherishes her and many other children that she has never met. That speaks volumes of the both of you!
Feliz Cumpleanos Camila! What a beautiful way to celebrate your life. Such a wonderful idea, teaching our children that birthdays are not just about recieving gifts and having a party but giving to others as well. Que Dios te bendiga siempre.
Feliz Cumpleanos!!!
Happy birthday to Camila! TY for doing this and making sure other lil ones get to their 5th bday too. Keep up the great work Ana!
Feliz cumple Camila. Que sigas celebrando en grande estos 5 años de vida. Bendiciones, salud y todo el amor de tus padres y familiares.
Rory, Chris y Chloe!
What a wonderful cause! Sending birthday wishes to your little one.
Muchas felicidades Camila! espero que hayas pasado un día muy felíz!
Feliz Cumpleanos Camila!
Happy cumple! She is so adorable and what a wonderful way to celebrate her big 5! Un abrazo. Julie
What a gift it is to have a 5 yr old!! The magic number 5, the birthday so many little ones never get to see. So glad your girl had a great birthday!! xoxo
Feliz Cumpleanos and my best wishes for an amazing year! I can’t believe your beautiful girl is 5 already. I remember you pregnant!! Thanks for doing such a lovely thing for Camila’s birthday and thanks for being an inspiration to this Mami of a now 1 year old!!
Happy Birthday!!
Feliz Cumpleaños Camila! I hope that you have a wonderful year. Have a great first day of school tomorrow too!
¡Que niña tan bonita y tan grande! Feliz cumple Camila!!!
Feliz Cumpleaños Camila!
Happy birthday Camila, And Ana, have a great recovery of the birthday of your little girl!
What a great way to celebrate her life, raising money for other children.
We are so fortunate to raise our children in a country where we have access to good medical care. I am thankful as well to be able to raise my children and not worry about whether they will live to 5. Thank you for your post and the chance to help other children have a ShotAtLife. xoxo
Happy Birthday Camilla! Keep this love for others ever present in your life.
Feliz Cumpleańos Camila! This idea is FABULOSO! Thank you for drawing attention to such an important cause, and for giving me a great idea to follow with my own nina’s celebration. Felicidades!
Happy birthday and fabulous post!
Happy Birthday!
Such a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday! I hope you all had a wonderful celebration!
Such an amazing idea. Thanks for the chance to help make a difference.
What a great cause. Happy birthday, Camila!
Feliz Cumpleaño – Happy Birthday, Princesa Camila! You will love Kindergarten!
Yey! This is so exciting! We are all raising money together to help someone! Right now I am pretty much vaccinating a kid to protect them for life! Thanks for being part of this!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This is so exciting! We are all raising money together to help someone! Right now I am pretty much vaccinating a kid to protect them for life! Thanks for being part of this!
Happy Birthday Camila!!!!! Lots of love, health and happiness sent your way.
Happy Birthday to your little girl! Thank you for being an advocate of such a great cause as Shot@Life and thank you for your blog.
Happy Birthday Camila! Congratulations parents on doing a great job! Thanks for your concern regarding the world’s children who are in need of basic immunizations most of us take for granted.
Felicidades, Camila. Gracias por ayudar a los demás.
¡Feliz Cumpleaños Camila! Los 5 es una edad tan bonita. Para mi hijo fue la edad de transición entre ser un bebe grande a un niño grande
Happy birthday Camila!
Happy, happy Birthday, Camila! What a great way to celebrate your amazing life.
Psst… You’ll love kindergarten!
Happy Birthday Camila!
Happy Birthday!!!!
Happy birthday Camila!! My little guy, Nathan will be 5 in November!!! Such an exciting birthday!!!!
Feliz Cumpleanos y Happy Birthday! August 18 is our anniversary so wanted to comment on this day (even if I am late) – happy it is also Camila’s birthday. Heathly children are a blessing and something to celebrate
What a great idea (particularly in this stuff-laden country of ours) to invite friends to give to someone less fortunate than ourselves for a birthday. A friend of mine has hosted her own birthday party for the last few years, inviting friends and family to donate time and money to assembling hygiene kits for people in developing countries.
This is a fantastic initiative, raising awareness, raising funds and making it easy for us mouse-potatoes to get involved and help out.
It should also encourage us to think – and discuss – the necessary education campaigns that should accompany such immunisation drives. There is still a lot of ignorance to be overcome, even in developed countries such as the USA, and unfortunately, we are now also dealing with the backlash of the covert operations in Pakistan that took place under the guise of vaccination campaigns.
Lots of work to do, but, as the famous proverb says, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”
Thank you for participating!
It’s a wonderful what you and your husband are doing for your child. I didn’t realize that every year our children reach another a birthday, they are reaching their goals and dreams every year. It is a privilege to be part of child getting most need vaccination. Thanks for being a part of a great organization -Shot@Life.
Como cada comentario cuenta, aquí va otro
Besos!
My daughter is starting kindergarten, too, this year! Happy Birthday to your daughter! Bon Anniversaire!
Here’s giving more children a shot at riding the bus!
(So nice to meet you at the Shot@Life booth at BlogHer!)
Jen
Happy Birthday to Camila and big hugs from one kindergarten mother to another! Trying my best to keep it together today but aren’t we lucky to have this day to celebrate!
Feliz cumpleaños – a little late – to your princesa! So sad to know others have been unable to celebrate, but hoping many more will be able to with the help of this campaign.
Thanks so much for the chance to bring shots to children in need. It is hard in every day life to find the opportunity to do such good with so little effort. Thanks for what you and Shot@life are doing!
Thank you for your contribution to the Shot@Life!
I’m hoping that additional comments count towards the total. I’m making a second pass through the calendar to catch a few days I missed the first time around.
I just love this idea so much so here is comment #2 for me!
First, I hope Camilla had a birthday fit for the princess that she is!
Now, I recently got back from a wonderful weekend in Ottawa Canada with an organisation that is near and dear to my heart. World University Service of Canada (WUSC) works to bring students from refugee camps in Africa and Asia to study in Canadian universities and colleges. I told everyone about Blogust and what a great fundraising initiative it is. What I wouldn’t give to find a generous donor to contribute to WUSC’s Student Refugee Program (SRP) in the same way! I am currently fundraising in my own small way for the SRP by challenging myself to run a half marathon in December and blogging about it here: http://21kforchange.blogspot.ca/
Communities, be it online or otherwise, coming together for a cause is just so incredibly inspiring to me!
Thank you, Ana, for taking part!
now who can turn her down! blessings to her and you for being a part of this amazing campaign!