“The children’s reaction in the classroom was amazing,” highlighted an educator from Jujuy at the end of the campaign The Power of the Immune System and Vaccines, carried out by FUNCEI in that Argentine province in 2021. In addition, the Foundation worked with schools from the city of Buenos Aires and metropolitan area, and with family action centers (CAF) in the capital city, where the campaign is still ongoing in 2022. It was declared of educational interest by the General Bureau of Child and Teen Development (Ministry of Human Development and Habitat) of the City of Buenos Aires.
“Our goal is to increase awareness in students, educators, and family members of the importance of self-care,” stressed Cristina Stamboulian, from FUNCEI’s Education Department. By motivating participants to actively practice healthy habits to prevent diseases and strengthen the immune system, they promote children’s general well-being and contribute towards a healthy, happy growth. “We place a special emphasis on vaccination as an effective method to prevent and control infectious diseases,” added Dr. Hebe Vázquez, medical coordinator of the campaign. To this end, they organize specific activities to promote keeping vaccination record cards updated for children and their families.
As main educational material, FUNCEI created the book Los defensores de nuestra salud. El sistema inmunológico (Bodyguards of our Health. The Immune System), reprinted in 2022. An analogy is used to present disease-causing microbes as “villains” and body defenses as “superheroes”. With a fun comic strip, children “travel” inside the human body to learn about the immune system and its functions. The importance of vaccines is stressed by explaining what they are, how they are manufactured, and their effectiveness as key allies. “The book invites campaign protagonists to become ‘superheroes’ in their own bodies and to discover the ‘power’ they have to care for their health and to promote their physical well-being,” added Cintya Elmassian, from FUNCEI, book author.
Front cover and inner pages of the children’s book Los defensores de nuestra salud (Bodyguards of our Health).
In 2021, 4th and 5th graders followed the educational activities and instructions with great excitement and creativity, to understand and learn through experimentation, research, play, and art. FUNCEI created a padlet with the participants’ work and feedback, for everyone to access and thus enrich learning for all groups.
For instance, students at Instituto Don Orione wrote back to Dr. Stamboulian, who addresses readers at the start of the book. Children’s letters were published on the Institute’s digital magazine. “Such correspondence was part of a Spanish writing assignment and reading them was a moving experience for Dr. Stamboulian,” Elmassian highlighted. She also remembered the work done by children from the Instituto Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia at Mataderos (City of Buenos Aires), where they put together a health fair with models, posters, superheroes, and research results following the scientific method to show their families what they had learned.
The videos and digital material created by FUNCEI’s Education Department are available in the virtual mural as well. The Education Department and members of the Foundation’s medical team also provided training for teachers, principals, and other education authorities. At the end of 2021, FUNCEI staff received educators’ feedback, which evidenced how committed they had been with their work and the goals achieved, in spite of the atypical context and the hardships experienced by educational institutions during the pandemic.
2021 Campaign Feedback
Teachers and administrators considered the material an invaluable contribution to retrieving and giving new meaning to what we have learnt during a healthcare emergency that changed our ways of life. The pleasant, joyful, and highly educational strategy used guarantees the accomplishment of the Project goals.
Prof. Analía Riera, former Education Supervisor (Jujuy)
The COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing measures affected child vaccination rates, which have drastically decreased in Argentina, the region, and the world. This trend also results from spreading of misinformation, as well as vaccine hesitancy in the community. To regain trust in vaccines and promote their use, in 2022 FUNCEI launched the second edition of the campaign, with the participation of 1,185 children aged 2-12 years, family action center operators, educators, and families.
Total Reach of the 2021 and 2022 Campaigns
3,000
Children
200
Teachers and administrators
In the provinces of Jujuy and Buenos Aires, and the City of Buenos Aires
1,300
Books donated in the 2022 campaign
200
Books donated to the Municipal Teacher's Library
On Monday, June 6, FUNCEI celebrated the launch ceremony, together with the Ministry of Human Development and Habitat of the City of Buenos Aires at the Municipal Teacher’s Library. Authorities from both institutions and family action center coordinators, operators, and technicians attended the event. Dr. Vázquez and Dr. Micaela Sogga, from FUNCEI, explained the importance of the immune system and its functions, and the protection provided by vaccines. They also detailed which vaccines are administered at every age, according to the national vaccination schedule. Moreover, they alerted on the falling vaccination rates and the need to promote vaccines among children and their families by going over vaccination record cards and encouraging medical consultations. Finally, Elmassian presented the core book of the campaign.
Activities followed on July 15 with the first training session for coordinators and operators. FUNCEI’s Education Department team delivered books from their collection to children and educators, and shared the campaign approach and the content implementation. “We wish to highlight the interest, commitment, and warmth shown by the participants of the training, which ended on a sweet note, with children spontaneously approaching us to receive their gift bags accompanied by their educators,” Cristina Stamboulian recollected.
First teacher training of the 2022 campaign.
In August 2022, coordinators started organizing the campaign activities. This campaign designed by FUNCEI is sponsored by Pfizer. In 2021, the Foundation received support from GlaxoSmithKline.