What do vaccines have to do with the World Cup?

Our friends over at the ONE campaign sought to answer that in their report “Going for Goal: Immunization and the Case for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance”

The biggest sporting event in the world may not seem like an obvious place to begin a discussion about vaccines, but ONE shows us some pretty compelling data.

Here are the four biggest things you need to know:

1) First things first: Gavi is the most effective organization providing vaccines to the developing world.

They bring together individual donors, countries, activists, technical partners, and private companies joining forces to help deliver vaccines. Since the year 2000, they have successfully immunized 440 million children and have saved more than 6 million lives.

2) Tickets to the World Cup final costs $990

That could provide 831 lifesaving doses of vaccines to kids.

3) Beer sales alone will likely top more than $330 million.

More than the entire private sector currently give to vaccination efforts worldwide

4) 2/3’s of Gavi’s vaccine funds come from the 32 countries playing in World Cup 2014

Every four years, football fans around the world reach fever pitch as the date of the world cup draws near. This year, it kicks from 12 June and runs to the 13th of July.

In that same time frame however, Gavi will enter into a tournament of its own: a new fundraising effort to scale up its work and save even more lives.

That’s where you come in.

You can help ensure that Gavi has the funding it needs to continue its work. Signing a petition may not be as exciting as going to soccer game, but don’t you think saving lives deserves at least as much attention?