It's been an incredible year. Read our round up of the milestone moments of the last year:
CoMO virtual conference
This year, we held the annual CoMO conference virtually, and it was a huge success. Over 80 people attended our virtual talks and sessions during the conference, and many attendees gave feedback showing they found the sessions very valuable. The talks included a mix of personal stories from people who have been affected by meningitis and sessions on different meningitis policies around the world. For example, Christine Bennborn spoke about how she turned the tragic death of her son Mathias into the fight against meningitis and Dr. Nicoline Schiess spoke about the WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care.
The conference gave the attendees and CoMO members an excellent opportunity to talk with each other about ongoing projects and share stories about how meningitis affected them. One member had this to say about the conference:
“In addition to being very enriching, it has provided us with a global connection with the mission, which empowers us and drives us in what needs to be done!”
CoMO World Meningitis Day Advocacy Fund pilot launch
The CoMO advocacy fund was launched this year as a pilot, providing £2-3,000 funding to six CoMO members to use for meningitis advocacy projects in the three months running up to World Meningitis Day 2024. This was a unique opportunity for members to receive financial support to make your 2024 advocacy and engagement initiatives a reality. We were looking for innovative projects that had the potential to deliver high impact and change in your region.
We had many different applications for the fund from around the world, all describing what they could do with the fund. All the six projects funded have helped to make meaningful changes to meningitis awareness worldwide. We had an excellent standard of applicants from across the globe. These were the six projects we supported:
The Care and Development Centre (CADEC) delivered specialised training to 30 health workers. This was achieved in collaboration with three state-level health ministries. The training recipients all came away with the knowledge and confidence needed to identify the early signs of meningitis and report suspected cases.
The Concern Health Education Project (CHEP), Ghana, partnered with the Ministry of Health for a national-level commemoration of World Meningitis Day 2024 and launched an expert committee on meningitis. The press-conference-style event was attended by over 100 people, including civil servants, members of the press and other civil society organisations. They also recruited vaccine champions and reached millions through radio.
The Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS) organised a high-level panel discussion event with part of their advocacy fund for World Meningitis Day. 140 people attended including representatives of the Ministries of Health and Education and the WHO. They also raised public awareness of meningitis using an educational cartoon, shown to schoolchildren and shared online reaching 330 pupils, ten teachers and five school directors.
The Japan Child Meningitis Organisation lit up an iconic local landmark with their advocacy fund. They also used the day as an opportunity to engage school students and the local community. JaCMO also printed high-quality information flyers to distribute to local broadcasters. As a result, the events were featured on the morning news segment of the local television station MBS, which has a broadcast area containing 22 million people.
John Grimes from the USA hosted the first Texas-based "Shots 4 Meningitis" event at Topgolf. The main goal of the event was to increase meningitis awareness in the local area. This outcome was achieved, as 80 people attended, 300,000 were reached via radio advertising and 46,600 were reached via Instagram and Facebook.
Spensa’r Fulgence from Tanzania used the advocacy fund to raise life-saving awareness about meningitis through targeted media promotion campaigns, open discussions, and education. He visited three local schools, directly reaching over 4,000 people, and spreading information about meningitis. A press conference was also organised to take place on World Meningitis Day at the Mbeya Regional Referral Hospital where over 500 people attended.
We have really enjoyed seeing the amazing work that has come from the World Meningitis Day advocacy fund pilot. We’ll be sharing case studies on each of the six projects chosen, these will include the impact statistics of each project and how the member used the funds for their meningitis projects.
New advisory council members
It was time to say goodbye to some of our Advisory Council members and re-elect new ones. Our CoMO network continued to evolve in 2024, with the election of a new Advisory Council Chair and Asia-Pacific representative. Clayton Musungu and Pete Rowlands bring fresh perspectives and renewed energy to the team. To everyone who stood but was not elected, we are grateful for your willingness to serve your region, and we very much hope you will stand again in the future.
The CoMO Advisory Council provide our staff team with essential advice and regional perspectives on a variety of matters including new member applications, our annual conference, World Meningitis Day and other key decisions affecting our membership.
We’d like to give our thanks to Dr Ravi Kumar and Jane Plumb (previous Chair, who will continue as a representative on the Advisory Council) for all their incredible contribution to the Advisory Council over the last two years. Our current advisory council members can be seen on our website. We’ve enjoyed working with you all through 2024 and look forward to our work together in 2025.
Race to 2030
Our Race to 2030 programme, along with our new online hub, continued to inspire and mobilise people worldwide. We can now celebrate the creation of 13 national plans for meningitis, with Brazil proudly launching their plan featuring the meningitis flag and the invaluable contributions of CoMO members.
Race to 2030 is the Meningitis Research Foundation’s programme of work to engage civil society and advocates around the world in the implementation of the World Health Organization’s Global Road Map to Defeat Meningitis by 2030.
Throughout 2024, we have run several advocacy actions and seen a high engagement level from CoMO members. This includes signing a joint press release, submitting videos for our High-Level meeting campaign, contacting members of the WHO’s executive board and signing a joint letter to the WHO’s Director General.
If you are impressed by the work of the Race to 2030 team in 2024 and want to be involved we’re excited to be launching our Race to 2030 working group in 2025. If you’d like to join, you can sign up for the working group here: https://bit.ly/3Ebfmyj
Celebrating 20 years of CoMO
In 2024 we celebrated CoMO’s 20-year anniversary. In 2003, three families from France, Brazil and the UK were invited to a pharmaceutical company event in Italy about a new meningitis vaccine. They quickly connected, as parents of children affected by meningitis and founders of meningitis organisations. All three were passionate about making a difference on a large scale, and so they began to consider international collaboration. This marked the start of CoMO.
In the 20 years since there has been a significant amount of work and milestones that have been reached. One of the largest outcomes of CoMO was the creation of World Meningitis Day. The idea of an international day of coordinated meningitis events and awareness-raising was suggested by Bob Werner (Becky Werner Meningitis Foundation, USA) in 2009 and has been running annually ever since.
“The growing recognition of the power of the survivor – of family voices and their stories – has added weight to the key role of advocacy”, says founding former member, Bruce Langoulant. “This has enabled campaigns for better vaccine access and much-improved awareness of the early signs and symptoms of meningitis globally.”
Twenty years on from its creation, CoMO now has over 150 members in more than 55 countries. Its growth has been especially rapid in recent years, nearly doubling from its 81 members in 2022, and we have plans to grow even further in future.
If you want to read more about the past 20 years of CoMO, read our blog.
Welcoming new members and member successes
In 2024 we've welcomed 18 new members to our network and reached more countries than ever before. We now have 154 members based all around the globe, all contributing to being part of the world's largest collection of meningitis advocates.
We’ve seen an astonishing variety of campaigns and advocacy in favour of improved meningitis prevention, treatment and support from our members. Some amazing advocacy examples we’ve seen this year have been the colouring book designed for Maori people made by Meningitis Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand and the launch of an expert committee on meningitis as part of the Concern Health Education project’s Meningitis Today project.
We can’t wait to see what activities and projects our CoMO members will carry out going through 2025.
If you feel inspired by our work and want to be part of CoMO in 2025, follow the link below to learn more about membership. https://www.comomeningitis.org/membership
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