1.7 million kids die every year from diseases that could easily be prevented with vaccines. It’s a strange thing to think about when you consider the easy access we have to vaccines as a developed country. GAVI is a partnership that brings together organizations such as UNICEF, World Health Organization, World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UN foundation. Last Sunday I was lucky enough to attend a GAVI global tea party in New York City hosted by Denise Paredes and learn more about the very real issue of vaccines in developing countries. The GAVI global tea party idea was started by Jennifer Burden as a way to spread awareness about the vaccine issue. During the party we watched the story of a woman from a developing country who lost her daughter to pneumonia. It was a heartbreaking story but what made it even worse was the fact that if her country had better access to vaccines there’s a good chance that her daughter could have lived. The fact is, even at our worst we are still more fortunate than many other countries. The vaccines that as kids we dreaded getting are not available to many kids in developing countries and the availability of these vaccines could mean life or death for them. President of MOMentum Holly Pavlika discussed her trip to Tanzania for Shot@Life and how grateful the people are for resources that we for the most part take for granted. Attending this tea party not only furthered my awareness of the issues that go on outside of our country but motivated me to want to spread the word about this issue. I know that during hard times like this, we have a tendency to want to focus on what’s going on within our country but it’s important for us to remember that we’re all a part of the human race and when there’s an opportunity to save someone’s life, prevent not just illness but the emotional pain a mother faces when she loses her child then we should take that opportunity and make a difference.