Helen Keller International Joins Multimedia Campaign: Rx for Survival – A Global Health Challenge

New York, New York, October 7, 2005 – Helen Keller International (HKI) has joined the Rx for Survival impact campaign, a component of a global health media education project sponsored by PBS/WGBH.  HKI was invited to join the campaign as an outreach partner through its membership in the CORE Group, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations responding to health issues that place children at risk.  HKI is also a member of one of twenty community coalitions promoting the campaign at the local level.

Rx for Survival – A Global Health Challenge is a compelling, six-hour television series that will premiere on PBS stations November 1-3, 2005.  Narrated by Brad Pitt, the series was developed as part of a multimedia project to recognize global health challenges and the surprisingly simple health interventions that can address them.  Highlighting a set of public health problems, particularly those that endanger children under five, the Rx for Survival impact campaign seeks to raise awareness and then translate that awareness into action.  The affiliated website offers a variety of online tools to promote advocacy and volunteering and encourage donations, as means to help ensure delivery of health interventions to the neediest children worldwide.

As an outreach partner, HKI is disseminating information about the project to professional and community organizations.  The organization is also hosting a luncheon at its headquarters office in New York to introduce the Rx for Survival website, view the series preview and provide tools to better understand and distribute global health information.  One of the major challenges about global health issues is that too many people are unaware of conditions that exist around the world, and of their far-reaching implications.  One of the goals of this impact campaign is “to make the invisible visible.”

Along with Amnesty International, AMREF USA, CARE, Concern Worldwide and NetAid, HKI is participating in a community coalition organized by New York’s local PBS station, Thirteen.  The coalition’s activities include an expert panel discussion on global health, hunger, and nutrition that coincides with World Food Day on October 17th, as well as a Teen Project to encourage youth to work together and develop a global perspective. Click here to read Thirteen's press release about the October 17th event, and click on the icon below to access the Rx for Survival website.