When planning your festive affairs this week, consider a special and fun opportunity to make an immediate difference this holiday season. All this week, when you dine at the renowned Michael’s—both the restaurant in New York and the one in Santa Monica—you can help support UNICEF’s measles vaccination efforts. All week, at both locations, there will be a UNICEF card on every table encouraging diners to add a dollar contribution to their check.

This week is the first ever World Immunization Week—an international event created to raise awareness about the importance of immunization. Besides the protection that immunization gives against childhood and maternal illnesses, it is also important to vaccinate during an emergency: like a war, a natural disaster, or a refugee crisis.
UNICEF is the world’s largest buyer of vaccines for the world’s poorest countries. In 2010, UNICEF supplied 2.5 billion doses of vaccines to 99 countries, and reached 58% of the world’s children. But still, an estimated 1.7 million children died from vaccine-preventable diseases in 2008 before reaching their fifth birthday.

UNICEF Inspired Gifts are actual lifesaving items that you can purchase in honor of a loved one. Measles, for instance, kills more than 600 children every day, yet these deaths can be so easily avoided. Those who are lucky enough to survive may be left with life-long disabilities that can include blindness and brain damage. Fortunately, there’s a safe and easy answer. Just $24 will provide vaccines to immunize 80 children and keep them safe from this terrible disease.

POLIO: when the word is spoken aloud–alone and unconnected–it causes many to think of some ancient and forgotten disease. “Long since eradicated from the world,” many might say. Yet the reality, unfortunately, is very different: Polio is still here and it strikes fear in many parts of the world. Because this horrifying disease still cripples children around the globe.

What does a decision to publish supply data have to do with saving children’s lives? A lot more than you’d think at first glance. On Friday, UNICEF published specific pricing information about the vaccines we use to protect much of the world’s children against killer diseases.

Want to see what the effort to vaccinate 2 million children in just a couple of days looks like? This video gives a nice overview of the recent UNICEF-supported Child Health Days in Zimbabwe.