Life-saving shots: World renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes adds her voice to the fight for global vaccines

The UN Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign announced world-renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes as its Global Advocate today. Geddes, who is known for her iconic photos of babies, will raise awareness to expand access to life-saving vaccines for children in developing countries.

“As someone who works with moms and babies every day, but more importantly as a mother, it was heartbreaking to learn that around the world a child dies every 20 seconds from diseases that can be prevented with an inexpensive vaccine,” said Geddes. “This is an important issue and I’m glad to be joining the Shot@Life campaign to raise awareness about life-saving vaccines; every child deserves a shot at a healthy life.”

Shot@Life educates, connects and empowers Americans to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save children’s lives in developing countries. For only $20, a child can receive lifelong protection against measles, pneumonia, diarrhea and polio. Through her work with Shot@Life, Anne Geddes is fulfilling her commitment to support Every Woman Every Child, an unprecedented global movement spearheaded by the UN Secretary-General to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015. In 2011, Geddes joined the Every Woman Every Child movement by committing to raise public awareness of issues surrounding the dire need to improve the health and welfare of women and children around the world.

“The UN Foundation and Shot@Life are thrilled to welcome Anne Geddes as our Global Advocate in raising awareness for children’s health,” added the UN Foundation’s Vice President of Global Partnerships, Elizabeth Gore. “Ms. Geddes is world-famous for capturing childhood and motherhood—her voice will help reach millions with the message that anyone can help get life-saving vaccines to the children who desperately need them.”

Success is within reach. Through our partners on the Measles Initiative, the UN Foundation has helped vaccinate over one billion children since its inception in 2001, and has reduced deaths globally by 74 percent. The number of new cases of polio has dropped 99 percent and the world is nearly polio-free.  Yet there is still more work to be done.

Each year more than 1.5 million children die of vaccine-preventable diseases, according to the World Health Organization. The two most common causes of childhood deaths are pneumonia and diarrhea. These diseases can be prevented by groundbreaking new vaccines, which if distributed widely, have the potential to save the lives of millions more children.

Shot@Life, together with its partners, will support the work of the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI Alliance) to continue to save lives and improve the health of millions of children by providing vaccines to children in developing countries.

For more information on how to get involved and partner with the Shot@Life campaign, go to shotatlife.org or visit us on Facebook at facebook.com/shotatlifecampaign.

Tweet me: A child dies every 20 sec from vaccine-preventable diseases- join photog @AnneGeddesTweet & @ShotatLife to help now! shotatlife.org

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About Shot@Life
Shot@Life educates, connects and empowers Americans to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries.  A national call to action for this global cause, the campaign rallies the American public, members of Congress, and civil society partners around the fact that together, we can save a child’s life every 20 seconds by expanding access to vaccines.  By encouraging Americans to learn about, advocate for, and donate vaccines, the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign will decrease vaccine-preventable childhood deaths and give children a shot at a healthy life.  To learn more, go to ShotAtLife.org.

About The United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by global corporations, foundations, governments, and individuals. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

About Anne Geddes
One of the world’s most respected photographers, Anne Geddes creates images that are iconic, multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed, and beloved. Like no photographer before, her imagery singularly captures the beauty, purity, vulnerability, and preciousness of children, embodying her deeply held belief that each and every child must be protected, nurtured, and loved. Throughout her career Anne Geddes has continued to give back. In 1992, Anne with her husband, Kel, founded The Geddes Philanthropic Trust to raise funds and awareness worldwide for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. In 2011, Anne was proud to announce her partnership with the United Nation’s Every Woman Every Child initiative, which she hopes will continue to help make the health and welfare of pregnant women, and newborn children, a global priority. Anne is also the Global Advocate for the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign. Anne’s work has been published in 83 countries and her books have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. Her English-language my Pregnancy: A Woman’s Story™ magazine launches in the U.S. April 2012. Her book Beginnings received Gold in the 2011 Independent Publishers Book Awards, won both the photography and e-book non-fiction categories in the USA Best Books 2011 Awards, and was one of the top bestselling photography books of the year.
Geddes’ blog, Facebook and Twitter pages bring her fans into her studio and life. For more information, please visit www.AnneGeddes.com.