World Pneumonia Day: Engaging a global audience
On World Pneumonia Day, the SHOPS Plus project joined with partners around the world to bring increased awareness to global campaigns. Together with the Maternal and Child Survival Program, Every Woman Every Child, Save the Children, and others, the project contributed its voice through participation in social media, research, and dissemination of a toolkit for caregivers and health workers.
Engaging a global audience, the SHOPS Plus team brought greater awareness of pneumonia and added a private sector voice to the conversation using Facebook and Twitter. Emphasizing the importance of reducing child deaths due to pneumonia, the team shared key messages, images, and statistics that showed the devastating effects of pneumonia on children worldwide. Followers of SHOPS Plus gained access to information about the critical role private providers play on the frontlines of detection and referral for young children suffering from this highly preventable disease.
Earlier this year, the project analyzed the most recent Demographic and Health Survey data from 24 USAID maternal and child survival priority countries to determine where treatment and/or advice is sought for sick children. Globally, the data reflect that 69 percent of caregivers seek treatment outside the home for acute respiratory illness, a proxy for pneumonia. The majority of those caregivers (52 percent) go to the public sector and a significant number (43 percent) go to the private sector.
In 2016, SHOPS Plus worked with Clinton Health Access Initiative, McCann Global, and UNICEF to develop an innovative, open-source toolkit to help educate caregivers and frontline health workers about the symptoms of pneumonia and how to treat it. The kit included a comprehensive adaptation guide so it could be used in multiple languages.
Another way the project contributes to ending deaths due to pneumonia is as an active member of the Every Breath Counts coalition, paving the way for greater global visibility and engagement from governments and activists.
Learn more about SHOPS Plus child health program.
Access the pneumonia toolkit here.