The following is a summary of several blog posts commenting on the launch of USAID’s “Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday” social media campaign by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah at an event at the Kaiser Family Foundation on Monday.

• Sarah Boseley, Guardian’s “Global Health Blog”: USAID “has launched a campaign to excite all of us about the real potential for keeping young children alive and well — together with pictures of some famous children who made it beyond the age of five,” Boseley, global health editor at the Guardian, writes. “Speaking to the Guardian, [Shah] talked of the real feasibility of preventing thousands of deaths through modern technologies such as vaccines and malaria prevention strategies including bednets to every family in endemic areas, as well as low-cost tools that help women and community workers save newborn babies’ lives in the critical 48 hours after birth,” she continues. Boseley provides a link to the webpage where readers can submit their own fifth birthday pictures (4/23).
• Mark Leon Goldberg, PSI’s “Healthy Lives” blog: In this inaugural HealthCast podcast, which will be a regular series on Healthy Lives, Goldberg, the blog’s editor, interviews Shah about the campaign. According to the blog, “Shah articulates the reasoning behind this new push on child survival,” “discusses some recent innovations that may help make the widespread prevention of needless child deaths a reality in the near future,” and “discusses USAID’s efforts to combat the burgeoning food crisis in the Sahel,” which is affecting the health and survival of millions of children (4/23).
• Ariel Pablos-Mendez, USAID’s “IMPACTblog”: The campaign aims “to educate Americans on the disparity in child survival rates and make them more aware of our incredible capacity to save children’s lives,” Pablos-Mendez, USAID assistant administrator for global health, writes. “We also hope to rally the child survival community — bringing together the various partnerships and initiatives that are the backbone of child survival — to mobilize the world toward the goal of ending preventable child deaths,” he adds (4/23).
• Alex Palacios, GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog: USAID’s “Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday” campaign “is designed to highlight the terrible reality that more than 7.6 million children die annually from preventable disease and malnutrition before they reach this milestone,” Palacios, GAVI Alliance special representative in Washington, writes. “This campaign is part of the Child Survival Call to Action, a global gathering USAID will host in June to galvanize efforts to reduce the number of children dying needlessly around the world,” he continues, adding, “The meeting comes at a time of great hope, and one of the reasons for hope is history” (4/23).
• Nicole Schiegg, “White House Blog”: “The premise of this awareness-raising campaign is simple: every child should have a chance to reach five,” Schiegg, a senior adviser at USAID, writes, adding, “Over seven million children — most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — didn’t reach their 5th birthday last year. That number is equivalent to the entire population of New York City.” She continues, “We must ensure that affordable tools reach the most vulnerable children around the world. This isn’t the responsibility of just the United States. It is a shared value with countries and citizens around the world” (4/23).