“Now that you’ve been vaccinated, it’s time to give back:” UNICEF Canada’s chief program officer on how to mobilize Canadians for global vaccine equity

The pandemic ends for no one until it ends for everyone. 

Advocates for global vaccine equity have repeated this mantra throughout the course of COVID-19, but still, inequity is playing out on a global scale perhaps more starkly than ever before. While 85 percent of eligible Canadians have gotten their first vaccination dose, a mere 6 percent of those eligible in low-income countries have received theirs. 

That disparity is due to both supply and delivery issues, says Rowena Pinto, chief program officer for UNICEF Canada — and that’s why the organization launched its #GiveAVax campaign in July of 2021. The campaign is still active, and allows Canadians to donate money toward UNICEF’s work vaccinating people in low-income countries. 

#GiveAVax has raised a total of $17.7 million since its launch in September, with $9.6 million being matched by the Government of Canada (who agreed to match donations up to $10 million and until Sept. 30 of this year) — bringing the total amount the campaign has poured into global vaccinations so far to $27.3 million.

We sat down with Pinto to learn more about how the campaign has gone, what she and her team have learned about mobilizing Canadians for global vaccine equity, and what the future holds for #GiveAVax. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Kylie Adair: #GiveAVax raised quite a big chunk of money in a short amount of time — is this where you thought you’d be at this point? What were your predictions for the campaign?

Rowena Pinto: We were incredibly pleased. What we’re really happy about is how Canadians stepped up. More than 40,000 Canadians across Canada donated to UNICEF’s global vaccination efforts — this is truly exceptional, considering most of the campaign happened during the summer when most Canadians finally were enjoying a bit of freedom. It really, to me, demonstrates that with all of the horrible things the pandemic has brought to us, one thing that has increased is just Canadians’ desire to be part of ending the pandemic for everyone. 

Kylie: What have you learned on that front, about mobilizing Canadians for global vaccine equity when the beneficiaries of their donations are in different parts of the world and we’re in a very different phase of the pandemic here?

Rowena: Well, it’s interesting. I think many situations that people around the world, and especially children around the world, deal with on a regular basis — whether that be school closures or lack of healthcare or inability to go out safely, et cetera — these are all things that we all experienced here in Canada. So that did build, I think, more empathy for how we are really all connected. I think, in addition, it doesn’t really matter how high any country’s vaccination rate is of their own citizens — we are a global community, so if we don’t vaccinate the world, we’ll see variants emerging that will still have an impact on countries that are highly vaccinated. Canadians really understood this. They saw the emergence of various variants. They saw that a few variants impacted their own lives. We have to remember, Canadians already tend to be more globally minded. All of us have family and friends in other parts of the world, so we realize that the pandemic knows no borders and the pandemic ends for no one until it ends for everyone. 

Kylie: Was it a balance, in terms of messaging, between urging Canadians to help provide vaccinations because it’s the right and kind thing to do and this idea that the pandemic won’t end for us, either, until it ends for everyone? How did you navigate this balance?

Rowena: It is a balance, but the stats speak for themselves. Here in Canada, 85 percent of all eligible Canadians — and now we count that as anyone five years old plus — have at least one dose. And if we then go to low-income countries, only 6 percent do. I think it is very easy to understand, from a Canadian’s perspective what that potentially could mean, not only in the fact that this extends the pandemic for everyone, but people can understand not seeing their families for two years, not being able to cross borders, not being able to access their family physician, having to pull their children out of school and understanding the impact that has on children. It isn’t such a hard story to tell, because I think having gone through some form of it here in Canada, Canadians can understand what it means when you’re not vaccinated. It was also such a big difference when vaccinations started to roll in [in Canada] — knowing that many families are still in this situation where they don’t know when they’re getting a vaccine, I think that is an easy story to tell Canadians. They understand that.

Kylie: At a very human, elemental level, we understand the fear. 

Rowena: That’s right, and we also understand the hope that vaccines bring. One thing to mention is that UNICEF is a children’s organization. They are who our primary clients are. We know that even though children were not the number one victims of COVID-19, every aspect of their childhood was somehow altered or disrupted. Anyone who has children in their life here in Canada will understand the impact that had on children. We have to end the pandemic so children can go back to school, they can get the healthcare they need. Right now, we are seeing huge increases when it comes to issues related to child protection, because children remain in danger when they’re not in school and are invisible. We’re seeing a rise in child marriages. We’re seeing a rise in child poverty. We are seeing huge issues related to malnutrition because food systems have been disrupted. To a certain degree, that has happened here, so it’s also about understanding that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on those who were already in a vulnerable or marginalized state, and we’re just seeing those disparities grow. 

Kylie: When #GiveAVax launched, I remember being surprised that nothing else like it existed. Why do you think that is, and what was it like to launch such a massive global undertaking?

Rowena: Things were happening quite quickly. Vaccines weren’t approved until the latter part of 2020, so if you think about how quickly we needed to mobilize. UNICEF, globally, was able to deliver its first doses to some low-income countries as of late March/early April [2021]. At the same time, Canada was still very early on in our vaccination efforts and there were issues with our supply chains. So part of it was, how do we ensure that Canadians can focus on others — that they’re not feeling this dire fear for themselves at the same time as we’re trying to get them to think about others? A big part of the campaign was, ‘Now that you’ve been vaccinated, it’s time to give back.’ 

Kylie: How do you feel, then, about many Canadians now moving toward a third dose while so much of the world hasn’t even received a first?

Rowena: I mean, this is going to stay with us for many years to come. We are looking for Canadians to continue to help us deliver doses to low-income countries. This will probably remain a major priority for UNICEF in the coming year. It’s hard to predict how long, but all I can say is that we are still behind — we still need to do more. Our number one goal is to get all children everywhere back to living their childhoods. We are dedicated to getting as many frontline workers, health workers, and vulnerable adults in low-income countries vaccinated, so that life can go back to normal for children in those countries. 

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