Ewan on a cold chain mission

MANILA, Philippines - Ewan McGregor travels to the ends of the Earth on his mission to immunize some of the hardest-to-reach children in the world.

The program follows Ewan as he joins a team delivering vital vaccines to the world’s most remote children and meets the health workers who help ensure the most vulnerable children are immunized against deadly diseases.

The routes vaccines travel are known as cold chains, and a vast network of them exists across the globe. The fragile nature of the vaccines means they must be kept constantly cold as they are passed along the supply chain, from freezer to freezer — wherever that may be.

Ewan follows three of the world’s toughest cold chains, supported by UNICEF that  immunize over half of the world’s children.

Ewan’s journey starts in India. With a booming population, the cold chain is a race against time to stop polio before it can enter the country and spread. From India, Ewan continues his journey into the isolated wilderness of Nepal. He must endure a grueling two-day trek to reach a tiny community secluded high in the Himalayas, but not before attempting to land at one of the world’s most dangerous airstrips. Elsewhere, Ewan journeys up the mighty Congo River, where he passes through frontier towns in the wilds of Central Africa, encounters a unique subculture for which style is a religion, and ventures deep into the jungle in search of Pygmy tribes.

Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission airs on Solar News Channels’ Stories on Sept. 12 and 13 at 8 p.m.