Notes from the Field, Haiti
October 20, 2009

day 2
by Amy Steets

Journeys are really important, and today I witnessed the completion of a most important one. Four drops of 200,000 iu vitamin A were manufactured, encapsulated, and bottled in Canada earlier this year. From there they were picked up by a shipping company and driven to the Vancouver boarder crossing where they went through customs and continued on their way to the Vitamin Angels headquarters office in Santa Barbara, CA (a detour for most of our product which goes directly to our partners for distribution). They sat in storage for a few months until they were placed in a suitcase bound for Haiti. Upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, they boarded another small 15 seat airplane (it looked more like a bus with wings than your standard aircraft) and landed in Les Cayes where they stayed for a few days. Then today, they were placed in a small backpack and bounced around for three and a half hours in a car and then carried up a steep trail into the foothills to the town of Platon. After an education piece on the importance of vitamin A, those four drops found themselves falling into the mouth of a 4 year girl ready to provide a nutritional foundation that will have a life changing impact on her life. What a privilege it was to witness the completion of this journey today.

Thanks to all the hands that helped to make this happen!

Amy talks about her experience reaching children in Platon, Haiti in the below video: