Fellow Rotarians:
Not everything that happened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been negative. In Brazil, the pandemic led directly to the creation of a powerful new campaign to promote polio vaccination.
Anti-vaccination sentiment emerged all over Brazil during the pandemic. To reassure people that vaccinations are safe, Antônio Henrique Barbosa de Vasconcelos — a member of the Rotary Club of Fortaleza-Alagadiço, Ceará, Brazil, and now a member of Rotary International’s Board of Directors — suggested creating an evidence-based information campaign. The campaign, called Information Saves Lives, highlighted facts and statistics from the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.
“The COVID campaign was a complete success,” Vasconcelos recalls. “At the launch, we used a room for 500 people. It was packed in the first few minutes.”
For the Information Saves Lives campaign, Vasconcelos’ team designed a wide array of media to promote vaccination: magazine ads, billboards, stickers for bus windows and bus stops, radio spots, a website, and social media graphics. The materials were distributed to clubs all over Brazil, many of which were able either to raise money to pay for media placement or use partnerships to secure free placement.
Soon, Vasconcelos and the other planners realized they could use the same approach to promote polio vaccination. Polio was last recorded in Brazil in 1989, but low vaccination rates could lead to reappearance of the disease. According to the country’s Ministry of Health, the vaccination rate was just 72% in 2022 for children under five years of age. The goal of the National Immunization Program is to vaccinate between 90% and 95% of that group.
Vasconcelos assembled a team made up of Rotary public image coordinators, polio staff, members of Rotaract and Interact, and staff from Rotary Brasil magazine to create new messaging addressing polio. In addition to the media used in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Together Against Polio also includes designs that can be printed on balloons and T-shirts. The Together Against Polio website and social media graphics take the message online.
.png)
