Happy new year!
We’re starting the year off with a very ambitious fundraising goal and need your support. This new campaign is to provide immunizations for children in hard to reach villages along Thailand’s border with Myanmar.
We expect the campaign to last several months and hope to be making updates on social media and here as we hit milestones. We need your help to donate and spread the word. You can also continue to read below for a more detailed explanation of this project.
Our Fundraising Goal
We’re hoping to vaccinate 800 children this year against 5 main diseases. The children are from 28 villages in the hard to reach areas on Thailand’s border.
- Measles (Measles, Mumps, Rubella)
- Tuberculosis (TB)
- Polio
- Hepatitis B
- Tetanus (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis)
The cost of vaccines is roughly $35 per child and our goal is to raise $30,000 USD.
When mobile vaccination programs stopped because of covid, the number of families without access to this basic form of healthcare steadily increased each year. The price of each of the vaccines has also increased post covid. In other words, this year we need to vaccinate more people, at a higher cost for each
Now we’re hoping to help more young children at once than ever before, but can’t do it alone. Your help will aid us in reaching villages of people who are ethnic minorities, often neither identifying as Thai or Burmese. Their lives are plagued by sporadic violence and irregular (if any) access to healthcare. The monthly income of the great majority of villagers is less than $100 per month.
Why Courageous Kitchen
Courageous Kitchen is not a medical charity. Why are you supporting a vaccination program?
If you’re familiar with the origin of CK, for years we’ve been using food to bring attention to unpopular social issues. This started with our efforts to help refugees, a controversial social topic in many places around the world. Vaccinations are no different, and can also be a touchy subject. We hope to remind people (not argue with them), that while wealthy countries debate the efficacy of vaccines, for the families we’re hoping to help, access to these vaccines could mean life or death for the young ones in their household.
We hope to close the post covid immunization gap and be sure the youth in these villages have the opportunity to lead long lives. To do this we’ll be on the same mission as in past years. While we’re sure some of you will find this campaign via the internet, we’re not betting solely on people’s donations. Instead, we’re using food, whether at events or in cooking classes, to share how important this mission is — and to invite you to join us in reaching our goal.
Note: This project is only possible through the cooperation of the Neo-Humanist Foundation, Baan Dada, and Art Bundles for Good.
