Comments: Easy Button Activism

Have you ever raised $300 for charity by pretty much doing nothing? In the first 1/2 of Blogust you could raise that much money. And, as the month of August is only 1/2 way through, you can raise that much through the rest of the month too! Honestly, Blogust is an average lazy American’s dream come true when it comes to activism. We don’t have to pull out our wallets or do something grandiose. We just have to spend 30 seconds typing a comment on the featured bloggers site.

I know you might not like to comment. It seems that everyone who is not a blogger hates to comment and those who are bloggers like to comment. Bloggers like commenting because they know that when you don’t get comments, you feel alone. You have no clue that someone in the world read your post. In fact, I was so surprised recently to finally get around to my analytical page and realize people actually do visit the Average Advocate (as I don’t get a lot of comments). I thought I did all this work just for my parents! *WINK*

But Shot at Life wrapped their efforts around commenting, and decided to make a month-long tour through different renownish-blogs to discuss “inspiration” and “commenting” and “blogging.” Actually, the discussion is pretty boring. So far it seems to mostly go, “We like comments and we are inspired by others who blog and read our blogs.” No kidding.

(okay, that isn’t entirely true. I’ve read a few interestingish-funny ones).

But, despite the fact that the discussion overall isn’t very inspiring, a lot of people are commenting. That is because this month what the bloggers have to say isn’t actually as important. What is important, though, is how many people comment on their blog on their given day because each comment raises $20 for Shot at Life. So to be very clear, every time you leave a comment you are essentially raising $20 to help children around the world!

Easy Button, anyone?

Who is Shot at Life?

Shot at Life is part of the United Nations Foundation dedicated to ending early childhood deaths caused by preventable diseases. This imitative pretty much pays for vaccines. Each comment you leave gives a child all the vaccinations needed to protect them from the four diseases that make them most vulnerable.

Okay, before all you vaccine haters jump on me here, let’s explain a little why this is important even though you didn’t vaccinate your kids. In the United States our kids are usually not vulnerable to these diseases thanks to healthcare access and the vaccinations that other generations received. If you believe that the risks associated with vaccines are not worth it, in the United States that isn’t really a big deal and you have the freedom to choose that. And you can even afford to vaccinate your child!

But imagine being a parent of a child who is malnourished, already making your child weaker while living in an environment where these same diseases can be easily contracted. You might not even be able to pay for the needed vaccines to prevent these diseases, which would be especially important if you don’t have access to healthcare close-by if your child does get sick (if you can even afford their recovery). In this world, most would probably agree that any risks associated with vaccines would be worth it to ensure the survival of your child.

Check out these stats from the United Nations:

“One child dies every 20 seconds from a disease that could be prevented from with a vaccine.”

“1 in 5 children still lack access to the life-saving immunizations that help keep children in the U.S. healthy.”

“Immunization has saved the lives of more children than any other medical intervention in the last 50 years.”

“Pneumonia and diarrhea [like caused by the rotovirus] are the two biggest killers of children under five, and account for more than one-third of childhood deaths worldwide.”

Currently, “the U.S. contributes approximately $350 million annually to global immunization programs and initiatives.”

This “…save[s] about 2.5 million children annually.”

But still “1.5 million children die every year” from these diseases.

That above number doesn’t count those who are still disabled or otherwise suffer from them but still survive.

 

All to say, I think most of us would agree that providing vaccines in at least the developing world is a good thing. They keep children healthy, saving lives and preventing suffering. And they are essential to worldwide eradication of diseases that can still slip into the United States (like Measles or Polio).

Action: Comment Every Day!

All to say, feel free to look at the Shot at Life website to learn more and look at other ways to be involved.

But what I am asking you to do is dedicate the next two weeks to release the needed funds to vaccinate at least 18 children (if you comment once per day, starting tonight). But, you can actually go back and comment on old Blogust posts, and comment as many times as you want on a post (as long as what you say is different and is over a sentence long). In reality, you can easily release way over the $360 needed to vaccinate 18 children.

So go ahead and bookmark this page:

Blogust 2012

From there you just click on the pic on the calendar, and then the link to their post. Scroll down and comment! Easy as pie! (Or pressing the Easy Button!)

If you are TERRIBLE at commenting, look, I’ll even let you have this comment to copy/paste! I am that nice!

Yey! This is so exciting! We are all raising money together to help someone! Right now I am pretty much vaccinating a kid to protect them for life! Thanks for being part of this!

(Note: Originally the comments would only bring in up to $20K. But then more was donated, raised to $30K. And now some very rich person or foundation added 170K so I’d be amazed if we hit that much. But you never know!)