The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full report, CLICK HERE.
The humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and UNICEF announced in February a US$20 million grant to support UNICEF’s global work with the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and the vaccines arm of the ACT Accelerator called the COVAX Facility. COVAX is a global effort between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi, UNICEF, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). PAHO’s Revolving Fund is responsible for the procurement of vaccines for the countries of the Americas.
As of April 23, 2021, the one-year anniversary of the launch of the ACT Accelerator, over 40 million vaccine doses have shipped to 119 countries and territories since the first international delivery to Ghana in February. On March 31, Belize received its largest number of doses to date when a plane carrying 33,600 doses of the coronavirus vaccine arrived in Belize City, Belize.
“Belize cannot afford a child health crisis at this time,” said Alison Parker, Representative for UNICEF Belize.
At the time of the commitment, Latter-day Saint Charities was the single largest private-sector donor to UNICEF’s ACT Accelerator and COVAX (COVID-19 Global Vaccine Access) work.
The initial doses in Belize are being administered to frontline health care and social workers, as well as high-risk and vulnerable people.
To read the full report, CLICK HERE.
