ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD CAROLINE STUDENT TRAVELS TO GUINEA TO TAKE PART IN RED CROSS MEASLES INITIATIVE

At the invitation of the American Red Cross, 11-year old Gregory Pendergast, a fifth-grader at Caroline Elementary School and his teacher, Anita Bellucci, traveled to Guinea to participate in the Measles Initiative's sixth mass measles campaign of the year.

Measles kills nearly 450,000 children in Africa each year, making it one of the five major causes of childhood illness, and a leading cause of childhood mortality in Guinea. Outbreaks of measles continue to occur seasonally and sporadically in both rural and urban districts of the country.

All at-risk children between the ages of nine months and 14 years old will be vaccinated in this campaign. In all, approximately 244,062 children are targeted for vaccination, saving an estimated 400 lives annually. The campaign goal is to bring measles deaths to near zero in Guinea.

This invitation stems from the Top School Project National Award bestowed to Caroline Elementary for the pilot program integrated into Bellucci's class last spring, teaching students about measles and the Red Cross Measles Initiative.

The five week program was designed to teach elementary-age students about the deadly disease that kills thousands in Africa yearly, while teaching other valuable lessons, including reading and writing, government and math, health and nutrition, as well as kindness, justice, and philanthropy. The students completed their program with a service learning project to raise funds for the Measles Initiative by sending specially designed postcards to family members. The class raised nearly $800.

"Initially our class took on this project because they had expressed a strong interest in finding a way to donate money for a good cause. I was a little leery about giving up so much class time, since curriculum requirements are steep, and time is a precious commodity. However, the education and perspective the class gained was beyond what I could have imagined. Through their studies and projects, they gained a perspective about life in other countries and global responsibility that I never could have provided for them through our traditional studies," said Bellucci.

Gregory and his teacher took part in social mobilization with the Guinea Red Cross Society to motivate mothers to bring their children to be vaccinated; visit schools and hospitals to talk to children, mothers and teachers; and visit with Guinean officials about the importance of vaccination. Their experiences are posted HERE for the public to view.

The Measles Initiative is a long-term commitment to control measles deaths of children in Africa by vaccinating 200 million children and preventing 1.2 million deaths over the next five years. Measles and its complications kill approximately 450,000 children each year in Africa; deaths that can be prevented through vaccination. The Measles Initiative is a cooperative project between Red Cross societies in Africa, American Red Cross, Center for Disease Control, UNICEF, World Health Organization, and United Nations Foundation.