NORWICH – Norwich Pharmaceuticals, partnering with Kiwanis International and UNICEF’s Eliminate Project, is delivering its charitable efforts on a global level this year to help end the threat that Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus poses to millions of mothers and newborn children across the globe.
The goal? To raise $110 million by 2015 for a three-dose vaccination that will protect more than 60 million people from Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus, or MNT.
Norwich Pharmaceuticals Department Manager Bridgetta Jones is currently in the Philippines, where UNICEF’s immunization work is already underway. It has been nearly a week since Jones arrived in the Philippines, said the Sherburne resident via e-mail, and it has been an experience both inspirational and emotional.
The following is her account from early this week, as she traveled to the remote, mountainous region of Baguio City from Manila, a seven-hour trip along hairpin curves with no guardrails and barely enough room for two cars to pass each other:
“Today, we met with patients and health care workers in many of the provincial area in this region. What struck me the most is the gratitude these people have for the support we are giving them. They are very dedicated and many of them are not even paid for the work they do. In some cases, when women need vaccination they will ride three to a makeshift motorcycle, hugging each other to hold on to traverse the mountain. All while they are carrying a cold box which looks like a small cooler to keep the vaccines cold. The women in this region want vaccines ... they just can’t always get to the clinics.”
Said Norwich Pharmaceutical Director of Human Resources Ric Festarini, “We can see these kinds of images on television and it somehow does not affect us nearly as much as hearing it from someone that you know personally. Reading Bridgetta’s recount of her hospital experience made this issue very real for me and reinforces our conviction to help these children.”
In a second e-mail, sent Wednesday, Jones described an infectious disease children’s hospital, one of the poorest areas, she said, in the area of Manila:
“We saw everything from typhoid to tetanus. In the four tetanus cases only one was recovering. None were neonates, which die even with treatment about 80 percent of the time. These children were having painful spasms and, as if that weren’t bad enough, they cannot be touched by their loved ones, not because they are contagious ... because any stimulation – light, sound, touch – makes the convulsions worse.”
Jones is expected to return to the states this weekend and a breakfast buffet is planned for early May, a chance for people to hear Jones’ thoughts on her experience in the Philippines. All proceeds from the buffet will be donated to the Eliminate Project.
For more information on the Eliminate Project, visit The EliminateProject.org. To make a donation, make checks payable to “The Eliminate Project,” c/o Luke Murphy, Norwich Pharmaceuticals, 6826 State Highway 12, Norwich, NY, 13815.