Source: China Food Safety Network
On February 28, 2021, on the International Rare Disease Day, mead Johnson, a world-renowned infant nutrition brand, and Mead Johnson Charity Foundation, together with Sina Micro Charity Platform, and 9 institutions and organizations across the country that have long been concerned about rare disease groups, such as the China Red Cross Foundation, the Seven Color Viola Rare Disease Alliance, the Corde Rare Disease Care Center, and Jingdong Health, joined hands with Walmart, Leyou, Baby Island and other partners, and jointly established the "Guardian Alliance" with public welfare guardian officers Zhang Xinzhe and Cao Xiyue to launch the "Rare Life Force". Protect them to take risks" public welfare advocacy, so that more people recognize, care for and support rare disease groups, and create a social environment of mutual help, tolerance and respect for them and their families.
On the same day, the "Guardian Alliance" composed of 17 institutions gathered to speak out, and launched the #Guardian Them To Adventure #Weibo topic interaction on the Weibo side, as of now, the number of reads has exceeded 53 million, and the interactive discussion volume has exceeded 25,000.
A public service video recorded by the Seven-Colored Viola Children's Choir, a member of the Guardian Alliance
It is understood that rare diseases refer to diseases with a prevalence of less than one in 500,000, or a neonatal incidence rate of less than 1 in 10,000, and they are one of the biggest challenges facing human medicine. At present, there are about 7,000 known rare diseases worldwide, but less than 10% of rare diseases have approved treatment drugs or regimens. The latest data show that there are currently more than 300 million people with rare diseases worldwide, of which nearly 50% are children. In China, the size of the rare disease population is about 20 million.
Mead Johnson is a century-old infant nutrition brand deeply rooted in China for 28 years, and has continued to gather global resources for many years to pay attention to, support and protect the healthy growth of special babies in China, and practice the corporate mission of "bringing infants and young children the best start in life". As early as 2009, Mead Johnson China and the National Maternal and Child Health Monitoring Office launched the first large-scale "Special Milk Powder Subsidy Project for Children with Phenylketonuria (referred to as PKU)", which not only helped poor children with PKU grow up healthily, but also set a successful example for rare disease relief, and played a positive role in promoting the introduction of the PKU treatment subsidy policy by the state; in November 2020, the Mead Johnson Public Welfare Foundation was officially established, which will continue to support children with rare metabolic diseases and special nutritional needs. Pay attention to their health and development.
As the initiator of the "Rare Life Force, Guard Them to Risk" public welfare advocacy and a member of the "Guardian Alliance", Mead Johnson hopes to unite into a stronger social force by joining hands with a group of institutions, non-profit organizations, caring enterprises, media, KOLs and popular stars that pay attention to rare disease groups, and jointly call for the participation of the broad public and become the guardians of the children's life journey, creating a more mutually helpful and inclusive social environment for this group of children and families, so that love is not rare.
It is reported that this public welfare advocacy starts from the three dimensions of highlighting the resilience of children with rare diseases to fight against illness, the popularization of rare disease knowledge, and the establishment of a rare disease social care and support network, through the public welfare video of the rare disease children's choir, the hand-drawn long map of rare disease science, the public welfare crowdfunding and other ways, combined with the expertise of the members of the "Guardian Alliance" in their respective fields, to leverage a wider range of public awareness and participation. So far, the #Guardian Them Adventures #Weibo topic hosted by Mead Johnson China has exceeded 53 million views.
JD Health and Mead Johnson launched a special page on rare disease knowledge
At the same time, Mead Johnson China and long-term partner JD Health jointly launched the "Rare Life Force" rare disease knowledge special page, popularizing rare disease knowledge for nearly 80 million Jingdong Health annual active users, calling on the community to respect and tolerate and help the healthy growth of rare disease groups. In addition, on February 27, the "Rare Disease Care Center" of Jingdong Pharmacy was officially launched. The center will create a one-stop solution platform for "medicine, medicine, insurance and public welfare" by connecting forces from all walks of life, and give full play to the advantages of JD Health's platform and supply chain to help alleviate the three major problems of rare disease groups with comprehensive rare disease drugs and medical services.
In addition, Mead Johnson China also supported the social crowdfunding campaign "One In a Million Souls" initiated by the Corde Rare Disease Care Center and claimed by the Red Cross Foundation of China in a 1-3 matching donation, raising family travel funds for children with rare diseases, so that they can temporarily forget the pain of the disease and accumulate the strength to fight against the disease during the wonderful journey. It is reported that the project has been successfully launched on the Sina micro-public welfare platform, and more than 2100 people have participated in the donation, and the matching donation activities are still continuing.