Sometimes we’re just as confused as the next NGO. What’s the difference between and ? How do I control the message if I let my supporters tell it? Is there more to than hair and recipes?

As with most things (like the Mad Men season finale), we think the best approach is to gather around the water cooler and share notes.

We’re launching a tweet chat series that aims to bring us, as global health NGOs, together to ask questions and share tips on social media. We’ll have a special guest for each session and a topic of conversation. Our first series is Thursday, June 14th at 2:00 EST and features Mo Scarpelli. She’ll help us discuss how to use multimedia for effective storytelling.

Mo is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and multimedia producer. From journalistic coverage to non-profit activism to conveying the ethos behind a brand, Mo uses stories to connect people, purposes and ideas. Mo spent more than two years directing, shooting, editing and producing major media assets and campaigns for the non-profit organization charity: water. Before that, she managed multimedia content and reported for The Wall Street Journal. With a Bachelor’s in Journalism at the University of Missouri, Mo spearheaded multimedia storytelling for traditional news outlets such as KOMU-TV 8 (Mid-Missouri’s NBC affiliate), KBIA radio and The Columbia Missourian before moving to New York City.

The logistics:

The twitter event will be held 6/14 at 2:00 EST and use hashtag #GHchat.

Feel free to submit questions before the chat or join us for the live hour. An archive of the chat will also be posted on our EndtheNeglect blog. If you are interested in participating or looking for more ideas on how you can incorporate social media into your global health promotion, be sure to check out the event on Twitter.

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END7 is a global advocacy campaign run by the Global Network to raise awareness of the seven most common NTDs and cultivate the resources necessary to end them by 2020. We also provide the opportunity for supporters to help people in need directly — by donating just 50 cents, you can help protect one person for a full year from the seven most common NTDs. Click here to learn more about the END7 Campaign.

Remember when you turned five years old? You were just about to start school and had big dreams about what you would grow up to be. A ballerina maybe, or a veterinarian, or an astronaut. You turned five, then six and continued to make new goals and hopes and dreams.

Unfortunately, more than 7 million children die each year before they reach their fifth birthday and will never find out what their future holds for them. Most of these children die from preventable complications and illnesses. Most of them live in low-income countries or disadvantaged communities.

Great progress has been made in reducing childhood mortality. In the last 50 years, child deaths have been reduced by 70 percent. But global health leaders around the world agree that more can be done to reach children with the health interventions they need to live a healthy life past their fifth birthday. With a cooperative push, they believe we can reduce the number of preventable child deaths to zero.

Hundreds of prominent leaders from government, the private sector, faith-based organizations and civil society are meeting this week in Washington, DC for a Child Survival Call to Action, convened by the governments of United States, Ethiopia and India. They plan to put together a long-term, focused strategy to save children’s lives. Continue reading →