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A village elder trudged through a remote area of Mozambique shouting in a bullhorn for the women to take their small children to the large tree near the wood shack that operates as their health clinic.
Waiting for them were volunteer aid workers and a lanky retired politician participating in the first event of a new international endeavor to bring common immunizations to the poorest regions of the globe. They were there to provide measles vaccinations to every child under age 5, along with some vitamin A and deworming pills.
At first, a dozen mothers with their children arrived but many more had heard the call of the bullhorn.
"The number of women there never really changed," said former Sen. Bob Bennett. "We would vaccinate a kid and then another would appear out of the bush."
Bennett, a Utah Republican, along with former Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., have agreed to act as co-chairmen of the United Nations Foundation's new Global Vaccines Campaign. The campaign is set for its big launch in September, but the foundation participated in its first event this week, inviting Bennett to join the aid workers in Mozambique.
He observed as a variety of groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, attempts to reach the ambitious goal of vaccinating 3.6 million children in five days. He returned to Salt Lake City on Wednesday.
The Washington-based U.N. Foundation asked the former senators to spearhead the campaign, which will, in part, encourage Congress to spend more on global vaccination efforts. While theyare not expected to directly lobby their former colleagues, Bennett and Dodd plan to provide strategic advice, give speeches and write op-ed pieces.
Peg Willingham, the executive director of the initiative, said she approached Dodd and Bennett because of their work on international issues. Speaking of the Utahn in particular, she said, "he really understands the impact of these issues and why Americans should care about them."
For his part, Bennett wants to be far more than a passive participant. He expects to go on more trips to learn about the situations in far-off lands and act as a resource in interacting with local governments — as he did in Mozambique, where he delivered a speech with the nation's Prime Minister Aires Ali.
"I had a great time," Bennett said. "They will be gong to other countries, and they want a high-level individual as a presence in these countries."
The U.N. Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the goals of the United Nations, has been in existence for more than a decade. But this new campaign, largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is by far its largest undertaking, involving a lobbying effort, a public-awareness campaign and a number of trips similar to the one to Mozambique.
Measles is one of the diseases the Global Vaccines Campaign will tackle. The goal is to work with other aid groups, such as the World Health Organization and the Red Cross, to reach a worldwide vaccination rate of 98 percent by the end of 2012 and eliminate the disease by 2022.
Bennett's work with the U.N. Foundation is the latest in his post-Senate obligations. After losing a re-election bid in 2010, Bennett has started his own lobbying firm, signed up with the Bipartisan Policy Center, mentored interns from the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics and written a regular column for the Deseret News.