Global Impact, on behalf of the Advancing Health Online Initiative (AHO) and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, invests $12 million through the VaxSocial Initiative to implement innovative social media interventions to build vaccine confidence
Summary
Geneva, Switzerland, May 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Impact, as fiscal sponsor for the VaxSocial Initiative, is pleased to announce the selection of seven organizations that will receive funding through VaxSocial, a $12 million initiative focused on demonstrating how social media can help build vaccine confidence.AHO and Gavi recognize that while extensive research has been undertaken to understand vaccine hesitancy and social behaviors, more efforts are needed to understand how social media can most effectively be implemented to promote behavioral change for health in a cost-effective and equitable way. VaxSocial seeks to fill this gap by supporting country-driven projects that leverage social media and behavioral science to build confidence around routine immunizations and drive scale and replicability in approach across geographies.Selected organizations from India, Indonesia and Nigeria were invited to apply through a process managed by Global Impact, the fiscal sponsor. The projects selected will explore innovative, promising approaches that leverage social media to empower and educate populations to make positive health choices around vaccination. Given the role social media plays in informing healthcare decisions, it is critical we leverage its power as a tool to help drive equitable health education, vaccine confidence and ultimately behavioral change.Were excited to be supporting the selected proposals as weve seen the role online platforms can play to help improve global health outcomes, such as scaling and personalizing content globally at a low cost, said Luchen Foster, Senior Director of Social Impact Partnerships at Meta. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance and the latest technology from drones to biometrics to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency.About Global ImpactGlobal Impact serves as a trusted philanthropy advisor, intermediary, and nonprofit partner for greater giving.