Vaccines: a hope for the future

The inability of many individuals, particularly vulnerable children, to access adequate healthcare is a persistent global problem that has yet to be strategically addressed and solved.

On May 17 in Geneva’s United Nations assembly hall, however, Bill Gates addressed the existence of diseases such as polio, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, meningitis, rotavirus, and pneumonia and proposed the solution of increasing access to vaccines.

“I had built my life around the idea that innovation is for everyone. When I began to understand how billions of people are deprived of its benefits, it made me angry. That's when I decided that my personal wealth would be used to help confront that inequity,” Gates said of his determination to alleviate the global poor of preventable diseases.

He proceeded to discuss the important role vaccines have to play in disease eradication. “They can be inexpensive, they are easy to deliver, and they are proven to protect children lifelong from disease,” Gates said.

He confidently termed this the “Decade of Vaccines,” calling on world leaders to make improving access to vaccines a top priority. This calls for further investment he explained, but this investment will pay off. Through it, countless lives will be saved and economies will thrive.

“As we free billions of people from the relentless burden of sickness and death [we] will unleash more human potential than ever before” Gates said.

Gates called for at least 90 percent coverage at the country level and 80 percent coverage at the district level. Global actors must do what it takes, he said, to reach the most vulnerable children in order to effectively achieve zero cases.

Therein will the world realize that global health is essential to global prosperity.

“It might be the most difficult thing we’ve ever done, but it will also be the most important,” Gates said.

For more information or to read the full speech visit www.who.int/en/

The UN general assembly hall during the World Health Assembly.

Bill Gates giving his address regarding the need to reach every child with the necessary vaccines.

Thereafter...

We were the last ones on the plane, and we were the last ones off the plane. Partially because we had to cram our luggage haphazardly into random overhead bins throughout the plane once we finally boarded and it would have been difficult to retrieve all of our luggage without, once again, holding up other passengers. Furthermore, Nicolle didn't wake up until the plane was empty.

Upon disembarking, we retrieved our checked luggage from the baggage claim and entered the general area where we met Afton, WOW's (http://wowinfo.org/new/) VP of International Affairs and director of the Global Education Opportunity Program of which we are a part. It was good to see a familiar face at the end of our journey. Along with Afton were Julie, president of WOW, and the Bonnys, the couple I was set to live with during my stay in Geneva. This was our first meeting, and I found them to be extremely sweet, although we could not communicate thoroughly because they spoke only Spanish and French and my French speaking skills have become fairly non-existent after a few years of acquiring dust in the recesses of my brain.

Afton and her coordinator Mutua had originally arranged for Nicolle and I to live with the DeGuzmans, but that fell through once they realized they could not house us the entire summer. Nicolle and I proceeded to panic as we realized we were to arrive in Geneva within the month and had no definitive housing. Up until the day before we left we were planning to live in a hostel for a week or so while we scoured the town for an apartment. The day prior to our flight, however, is when Nicolle was able to contact an LDS bishop and line herself up with a local family. I decided to stay with the Bonnys as suggested by Afton.

We loaded our luggage into the Bonny's car and proceeded to the Balixer (a local mall near the airport) to get cash and a bus pass. Afterward we headed to the Bonnys to clean up and contact the family Nicolle would be staying with, hereafter referred to as the "Smiths". We phoned the Smiths a number of times to no avail, so we decided to search for food. Mrs. Bonny offered to show us around the area, so the three of us boarded the elevator with four or five others. On our descent, however, the elevator decided to develop a mind of its own, meaning it did the opposite of what we wanted it to do, and instead imprisoned us for a good 20 minutes in the company of numerous bellowing french speakers as they ineffectively pounded on the doors of the lift as if sending a sign to God. I sat on the floor laughing at the latest predicament we found ourselves in.

After a short visit to a local pizzeria, we returned home to find that the Smiths had still failed to call. The Bonnys offered to drive Nicolle to their home, just a few blocks away, to see if they were home. As I came out of the bathroom to find them already gone, I decided to unpack and organize my things in the rather tiny room that had been assigned to me.

To our communal dismay, however, there had been a mistake in the communication between Nicolle, the bishop, and the Smiths, and they were not prepared to house her. Therefore, the Bonnys kindly set up another single bed in the already too small space that was now to be our shared bedroom. Without enough hangers, Nicolle hung her clothes over mine and we divided the space as evenly as possible. We were both so tired that we fell to sleep without a problem.

The next day Afton introduced us to Mary Balikungeri, an incredible Rwandan woman who founded the Polyclinic of Hope (http://www.rwandawomennetwork.org/clinic.html)as a holistic healing mechanism for women who experienced gender-based violence during the genocide. Afton had previously told us that she had a room for rent, but it sounded too pricey to be worth sharing a room and a bed. We found out, however, that she would be leaving that saturday and would be in Rwanda until mid-July. To pay that price for an apartment to ourselves sounded like a great plan at this point, not to mention having a great mentor in Mary. We visited the apartment, in a central part of town, with its hardwood floors, its large windows, spacious balconies, scenic view, and pleasant furniture, and we fell in love. Afton placed another intern in our previous home with the Bonnys (really only appropriate for one person) and we moved in with Mary the following day.

Talking with Mary is thoroughly inspiring. Hearing her stories and watching films about her work with the amazingly resilient women of Rwanda has allowed me to empathize with them more than I ever have before. I asked her if there was any way we could help further her cause, and she invited us to help update the content of her website and to help her write a book about her experiences with recovering Rwandan women and the Polyclinic of Hope. This would be an incredible experience to say the least. I also hope to bring her to UVU in the fall, she would undoubtedly inspire many UVU students to take action in helping to heal the women of Rwanda.

Now that I have generally caught you up with our living circumstances, I will be getting into our UN experiences, which have involved Bill Gates, Margaret Chan (Director of WHO), Julia Lalla-Maharajh (founder of The Orchid Project, http://orchidproject.org/) and many other incredible people who have been present at the World Health Assembly.

http://www.who.int/en/

The room we were initially sharing at the Bonny home.

The room we are renting at Mary's apartment.

The sitting room in Mary's apartment.

The view from our front balcony.

The view from our back balcony, including Jet d'eau, the world's tallest water fountain, and Mont Blanc, their tallest mountain.

Upon Arrival

As we descended, I thought to myself that I had never seen beauty comparable to the view of Geneva from the sky. The towering Alps eclipsed the grandeur of the Rockies in my memory, and within the forested landscape, comprised of various shades of vivid green, was a scattering of houses that seemed to merge organically with their environment. Only when we flew into the heart of the city did it become clear that it is densely populated, with most residents living in massive apartment complexes, everyone living stacked upon one another like a round of human Jenga. I held my breath until we touched down, and then breathed a sigh of relief as four months anxiety left me. I had made it, and the opportunity that had been in question for so long was finally secured. I was in Geneva, ready to begin my internship with the Worldwide Organization for Women (WOW) at their United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland.

The experience leading up to this moment, however, was not without setbacks. A week into the spring 2011 semester it was suggested to me that I apply for this internship... within a few days. After an arduous application process mainly due to limited time, I was able to meet with the organization's Vice President of International Affairs, Afton Beutler, who accepted me into the Global Education Opportunity Program. From there on it was fundraising, fundraising, fundraising. How does a university student come up with thousands of dollars to fund a hands-on international policy and grassroots project experience? She works all semester, puts money aside, applies for grants and scholarships, and approaches potentially supportive departments on her university campus. Contributors included The College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Integrated Studies department, Peace and Justice Studies, Gender Studies, the Utah Women and Education Project, and Internship Services. I was overwhelmed to encounter so much support on the campus of Utah Valley University. Additional financial and emotional support has come from my family, friends and mentors, who have really made this possible.

Once the spring semester ended, I threw the essentials into two suitcases and headed for the airport on May 15. At the airport I met my good friend and fellow intern Nicolle Johnson (www.awowexperience.blogspot.com) who contrasted with my dress suit and heels in her sweatshirt, yoga pants, and tennis shoes. I was thinking we would be meeting Afton directly upon arriving in Geneva, but I didn't necessarily take into account that our travel time was set to be 36 hours. I proceeded to pull a T-shirt over my undershirt and slip on my Nikes, yet remained unwilling to change out of my dress pants in front of the American Airlines ticketing desk. I then weighed the large suitcase I intended to check, but because it weighed over 50 pounds (63 to be precise) I had to open up both suitcases, transfer some of the weight to my carry on and just get rid of some altogether. Our flight to Chicago was a relaxing one. I read and napped and listened to music in a way that I hadn't done all semester. Our flight from Chicago to London was much the same, except add 5 hours, some snoring passengers, and microwavable curry. In London's Heathrow Airport we had a four hour layover, most of which was spent in a large shopping court in terminal three keeping an eye on the digital list of upcoming flights. When it came down to an hour before take off, we approached the British Airways ticketing desk to inquire as to the status of our flight since we had not seen it displayed on the digital tracking board, and she informed us that we had in fact waited in the wrong terminal for three hours, pointed us in the direction of terminal five, and instructed us to hurry because time was short. Getting to terminal five included too much walking, too much luggage, and a 15 minute bus ride. Once there, Nicolle had her ticket scanned without problem, but when they scanned mine they informed me that I had been booted from the flight. Panic set in. Thankfully, the woman who had successfully scanned Nicolle's ticket took it upon herself to contact multiple people and create a small window of time for us to rush to the gate of departure. To get there we had to go through security once again, but we made it just in time. There was confusion at the boarding entrance, however, because they had removed Nicolle's checked luggage from the plane due to the existence of another Nicole Johnson on the flight. This debacle took about 20 minutes to work out (holding up the entire flight, mind you) but after all of this hassle the flight to Geneva was genuinely serene, yet we both anticipated our arrival in Geneva, wherein our housing situation was uncertain and we both didn't know quite what to expect.

The feeling I got while looking down upon Geneva put me at ease, however, because in such a setting, one can only have adventures. We have been here for three days and have already had many enlightening experiences and have many fascinating stories to tell. Yet, those will need to wait until tomorrow, because it is 5:08 a.m. in Geneva and I have a long day ahead of me.

Bon nuit!

Our first lunch in Switzerland!

The Bonny's apartment building.

Front entrance of the United Nations.

The assembly hall where we hard from various health ministers and Bill Gates.

The grounds at the UN.