Get Inspired, Donate Vaccines, and Save Lives for Blogust 15!

Blogust is Shot@Life's annual August campaign*, during which each of your social media shares with a #Blogust tag triggers the donation of a life-saving vaccine for a child in need.

Blogust is also one of my favorite times of year. Because it's something I can do. Because as a parent of three kids and a writer, I too often find myself with very little time to make the kind of differences in the world I want to make.

But Blogust makes that so easy. It allows me to do what Malala Yousafzai told me and a group of Bay Area Digital Leaders a few weeks ago, when we attended the ceremony to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter:

"Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you.

It's you who can change the world."

Malala Yousafzai speaking at the #UN70 Celebration in San Francisco
[image: Teen Pakistani girl wearing a colorful scarf over her head and

shoulders, speaking into a microphone. On her right is white overlaid text
reading "Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you.

It's you who can change the world."]

My kids were furiously jealous that I got to see Malala in person, but also inspired by what she had to say. Some of those kids are active on social media, so that means that they can invoke Malala's indefatigable drive to make the world a better place, and contribute in this very appropriate way: by liking and sharing #Blogust posts.

I hope you'll participate by liking and sharing #Blogust posts for the rest of the month, too.

Why should you participate? Well, as per the Shot@Life site:

"Vaccines save lives. Millions of children could be spared from measles, pneumonia, diarrhea, polio and other preventable diseases if we could simply get them the vaccines they need. Many children in developing countries lack access to vaccines — often because they live in hard-to-reach communities. The good news is access to vaccines has grown significantly in the last decade. Vaccines currently help save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year. With your help, global vaccination programs implemented by our partners can stop the 1.5 million unnecessary deaths that still happen every year, and ensure that all children, no matter where they live, have a shot at a healthy life."

So share, tweet, and like every #Blogust social media post you possibly can. You can also read and share all the participants' original posts, as well as see the vaccines donations ticker -- 37,000 at the time of this writing -- at www.blogust.org.

It's you who can change the world. It's #Blogust that makes it easy to change the world. What are you waiting for?

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*During Shot@Life's Blogust 2015—a month-long blog relay—some of North America's most beloved online writers, photo and video bloggers and Shot@Life Champions will come together and share inspirational quotes for their children. Every time you comment on this post and other Blogust contributions, or take action using the social media on this website, Shot@Life and the United Nations Foundation pages, one vaccine will be donated to a child around the world (up to 50,000).