While many dangerous diseases have been eradicated in industrialized countries thanks to vaccinations, the situation is different in third world countries. Teams from the Japanese Little Baseball League want to help and are taking part in a special fundraising campaign.
The Kitanagoya Hawks from Kitanagoya, Aichi announced this season that they are participating in a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) fundraising program. For every hit they hit, 20 yen (about 16 cents) will be donated to polio vaccine.
Children are excited about the fundraiser
The amount corresponds exactly to a vaccination dose for children in third world countries. With the Kitanagoya Hawks, the campaign is also worthwhile. This season the 57 players recorded a total of 299 hits, which corresponds to 299 polio vaccination doses.
The manager Kenji Hayakawa was visibly proud of the children. They would do their best because they can contribute something to society with something they love. Hayakawa found out about the program earlier this year after being informed by Next Age Inc.
He thought the idea was good and believed that the children would be even more motivated when they play. In fact, when he explained the fundraiser to them, most of the gamers burst into enthusiasm. Captain Sota Eguchi, who is in sixth grade, was surprised that sport can help them provide vaccine to people.
Japan is considered polio-free
Next Age Inc. is based in Osaka and is an implementation consultancy UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the fundraiser, they want to give children the opportunity to help achieve one of the 17 goals, namely “ensuring good health and well-being among all individuals” in the world.
The Kitanogoya Hawks are now not the only ones participating in the program. Three children’s baseball teams from Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama collect money equally with their meetings. The donations themselves come from J-Port and NMT Japan.
Japan has been polio-free since 1980 but continued to use the vaccine until 1995. In recent years, however, cases reminiscent of the disease have surfaced again and again. In 2019 there was a major measles outbreak, which was probably due to the fact that fewer and fewer parents are getting their children vaccinated. Parents are also sometimes undecided about the corona vaccinations.
