Remove the barriers to achieving full immunization for 40,000 children across Mali and Côte d'Ivoire

As always, Focusing Philanthropy covers all overhead costs. 100% of every donation will go to the 2024-2025 Protecting Every Child campaign.

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THE NEED

Despite advances in immunization and child survival over the past two decades, significant gaps persist in achieving universal coverage, notably in countries like Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. According to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a quarter of deaths among children under five in Mali are attributed to children who have not received vaccines.

The barriers that prevent children from vaccination efforts also serve as barriers that block entire populations from receiving essential health care when they are sick. Communities with significant numbers of unvaccinated “zero-dose” children face severe socioeconomic and gender disparities that are often linked to extreme poverty, limited access to health services, and high rates of not just child mortality but also maternal deaths. Mothers of children who miss out on basic vaccines are 47% less likely to receive antenatal care or skilled birth attendance.

THE APPROACH

Focusing Philanthropy and Muso have partnered on an 18-month initiative to remove cross-cutting barriers to vaccination for 40,000 children under 24 months of age in Mali and Côte d’Ivoire, helping close zero-dose gaps while simultaneously improving overall health in the communities served.

For more than 15 years, Muso has partnered with governments to design, test, and scale strategies for rapid, universal health care. Its Rapid Care model uses Community Health Workers (CHWs) to actively search for patients door-to-door and connect them to life-saving services early, with zero out-of-pocket fees. Research has documented that Rapid Care communities saw a ten-fold increase in patient visits and achieved and sustained the lowest child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa (on par with the United States).

Leveraging key elements of Muso’s Rapid Care model, our 2024-2025 campaign will implement the follow strategies:

  • Find and Follow: CHWs conduct door-to-door home visits to identify vaccination status of every child population wide.
  • Connect: Health workers target outreach to children who have never been vaccinated or are behind schedule. Mobile vaccination teams bring vaccines to these children where they live. Extended clinic vaccination hours make it easier for patients to find a time when they can bring their children in.
  • Empower: Local vaccination teams use real-time data visualization to find where vaccines are needed, test contextual solutions and track progress.
  • Integrate: The zero-dose initiative is integrated into primary care clinic workflows, without user fees, to build trust and accessibility.

THE GOAL

From August 1 to December 15, 2025, Focusing Philanthropy will add $1 for every $2 contributed by Muso until the overall campaign goal of $3,200,000 is reached.

Donations must be a minimum of $1,000 and directed to Focusing Philanthropy, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit and free resource to donors. Donations are fully tax deductible and 100% of funds contributed will go to the Protecting Every Child initiative. All Focusing Philanthropy costs are covered by its founders.