“Under the slogan ‘Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday,’ [USAID] on Monday is launching a social media campaign featuring childhood pictures of Ashley Judd, Mandy Moore and Anna Kournikova, along with those of global health leaders and lawmakers, including Sen. John Kerry [D-Mass.],” with the aim of “build[ing] support to fight preventable deaths of children,” CQ HealthBeat reports. “‘By asking others to remember their own fifth birthdays, we want to remind people that more than seven million children each year never get the chance to celebrate that milestone,’ USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said in a statement,” the news service writes, noting, “Children who reach age five are much more likely to become adults, experts say.”

“The campaign is a different tack for USAID, engaging the public as well as congressional leaders who decide the agency’s funding. It also attempts to connect people more directly with health challenges in the developing world by identifying children as a specific population at risk,” CQ HealthBeat notes, adding, “The trend follows an attempt by the Obama administration, through its Global Health Initiative (GHI), to broaden and better coordinate U.S. global health policies” (Bristol, 4/20). Shah is scheduled to launch the campaign at an event hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Monday at 10 a.m. EST, USAID’s “IMPACTblog” says, noting the event will be webcast live. According to the blog, viewers can tweet their questions about the campaign to @JonCarson44, director of public engagement at the White House, after the event (4/20).