This year has been a blast for us at defeatDD; we hope you feel the same way!  In this issue, we reflect on 2011 milestones in raising awareness, and we hope you’ll agree that poo is finally starting to get its doo.

While awareness is one way to define “success” in online advocacy, we also think it’s important to ask: was it fun? We certainly think so. How about you? What was your favorite campaign this year, and what would you like to see from us in 2012? Let us know.

If you’ve liked what you’ve seen, consider sharing our newsletter with a colleague or friend. Simple actions will help ensure greater attention to deadly diarrhea – and ultimately, that means lives saved. Thanks for joining the movement.

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy 2012,
defeatDD at PATH

Each year on World Water Day, we celebrate the impact of water on development efforts. This year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the World Bank and the Department of State to more effectively coordinate water programs. Thousands of people heard about the benefits of water and sanitation on Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere. Even PATH president and CEO Chris Elias got in on the fun.

We celebrated World Pneumonia Day by adding our voice to the blog carnival and making a case for the power of vaccines. (We just hope that next year’s carnival includes funnel cakes.) Visit the World Pneumonia Day coalition website to learn more.

On World Toilet Day, we joined advocates led by water.org to #talkshit on Twitter. Even Matt Damon talked toilets, fulfilling our dream of hearing a celebrity talk about diarrhea. And we chimed in at a local library.

What better occasion than World Toilet Day to debut our new video, No Bleep, and to highlight WaterAid's Off-track off-target: Why investment in water, sanitation and hygiene is not reaching those who need it most (PDF 4 MB) with a guest blog from WaterAid’s Lisa Schechtman?

On World AIDS Day, FHI360’s Renuka Bery shared poignant stories from the field to remind us why WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) matters to people living with HIV.

The vast majority of diarrhea deaths occur in Africa and Southeast Asia, making progress in these regions all the more exciting. As two field projects came to a close, their stories provided rich insight that can inform future efforts.

Charting the course for integrated diarrhea control in Malawi (PDF 370 KB) outlines a landscape policy analysis that identified challenges and opportunities for prioritizing diarrheal disease in Malawi.

New Diarrhea Guidelines Look Toward a Healthy Future for Vietnam’s Families (PDF 501 KB) is the story of how PATH, Vietnam’s National Pediatric Hospital, and partners updated national prevention and treatment guidelines. Follow defeatDD team member Deborah Phillips as she observes the field work.

Dr. Duncan Steele, globally recognized rotavirus expert, described this year’s milestones of rotavirus vaccine introduction in Africa like a rolling crescendo of good news. It began in June with the GAVI Alliance pledging conference, where donors committed an additional $4.3 billion to accelerate vaccine introduction. One month later, the first children in a GAVI-eligible country in Africa were vaccinated against rotavirus in Khartoum, Sudan. Looking forward, GAVI announced funding for 16 countries to introduce rotavirus vaccines in 2012, 12 of them in Africa. This historic rollout across Africa, where diarrhea is the leading killer of children, represents an incredible milestone for diarrheal disease control and an accomplishment several years in the making.

In Sudan, the vaccines brought more than a shot at a healthy future. They brought laughter. And we look forward to even more laughter in the months ahead.

We had no idea what to expect when we launched our Twitter-based Poo Haiku Contest. Little did we know that we’d receive more than 100 thoughtful, funny, and poo-vocative entries – not to mention snagging the attention of big names like Dr. Richard Besser of ABC. Best of all, we crowned three amazing poo-ems. Congratulations to our Poo-et Laureates: @Clean_the_World, @Global_ErinH, and @mmcquest!

We know your creativity doesn’t end with the closing of our contest, so please continue to tweet #poohaiku when inspiration strikes. And we’ll share more entries in the coming weeks via @defeatDD on Twitter. Hai-poo cannot be contained!

What does the term “integration” really mean – and what does it look like in practice?

To answer that question, we partnered with Action Against Hunger, Action for Global Health, End Water Poverty, Tearfund and WaterAid to write Join up, Scale up: How integration can defeat disease and poverty (PDF 760 KB). The report highlights examples across 17 countries of how bringing different development approaches together - or integration - is working to help tackle poverty and disease, and calls on the international community to prioritize and invest in integrated programming. To request a hard copy, contact Hope Randall.

In June, defeatDD moved beyond Twitter and grew a new set of wings. To complement our existing website, weekly blog, Flickr, and Twitter accounts, we launched new profiles on Facebook , YouTube, and LinkedIn. Why? Because conversations with you are important to us. Next on our agenda is a dynamic, refreshed homepage for defeatDD.org. Stay tuned!

If you haven’t connected with us on our social media channels yet, there’s no time like the present! Just click on any of the links above. If you are already a fan, let us know how we’re doing – and how we can help support your efforts.

Photo credit: Nathan Golon

In June, we were thrilled to welcome Alfred Ochola, our diarrheal disease program leader in Western Kenya, on his first visit to the US to speak at the Global Health Conference about integrating WASH into public health programming. At the end of the week, we sat down with Alfred to find out if our nation’s capital made a good first impression.

Alfred made a second trip to Washington, DC, this fall to deliver remarks for the Power of 1% , celebrating the 50th anniversary of USAID and demonstrating what the US has accomplished with less than 1% of the Federal Budget. Alongside Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, Assistant Administrator of the Global Health Bureau at USAID, Karl Hoffman, CEO for PSI, and singer and songwriter Mandy Moore , Alfred said, “I don’t have a speech prepared. I am simply here to tell a story.” He continued to tell stories to a captive audience at the University of North Carolina Water and Health Conference, and even squeezed in some time to try his first piece of pumpkin cheesecake.

Do you know your poo IQ? We doo. And more than eighty participants of a Poo IQ scavenger hunt at the Global Health Council Conference doo, too. The contest, sponsored by the Health/WASH Network, led participants to panel presentations, partner exhibit booths, and (of course) hotel bathrooms in a search for info on the relationship between WASH and child health.

Read more about the contest from winners Elena and Ben. And if you want to be a poo guru, our toolkit for advocates is a great place to start.

Our blog is a popular destination on defeatDD.org, and a look back would be incomplete without revisiting 2011's top 5 posts, determined by you, our readers:

5. Celebrate Global Handwashing Day with a free poster: Because what’s not to love about colorful educational materials?

4.  My family’s battle with chronic diarrhea: Adopted from Ethiopia, Little Ash (pictured above) was able to get the care he needed, but too many children aren’t so lucky.

3. Talking about poop: lessons learned in South Africa: Stephanie Ogden of Water For People overcomes taboo to remind us that “bowel movements are barometers of well-being.”

2. Lend your voice for safe water and sanitation: On World Water Day, PATH’s president was thrilled to see momentum building for safe water and sanitation. But the stakes remain high, and we need your voice.

1. Congratulations to winning poo-ets: The contest that had the Twitter-sphere on the edge of their seats.

We’d like to send a big thank you to all our excellent guest bloggers of 2011. If you have an idea – or you’re already eyeing a top 5 ranking for our 2012 reader favorites – send us a message.