This story was submitted by our partners at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti where they are reaching pregnant women and new mothers with daily multivitamins.

"Judith lives with her husband and four children in Verrettes, about 15 minutes by car from her local dispensary health clinic run by Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) Haiti. She is expecting her fifth child in August 2013. They are a busy family: Judith sells rice in the local market, while her husband is a fruit and vegetable farmer; with their income, they are working to put their children, who range from ages nine to seventeen, through school – a real investment in the future.

She is also investing in health. Like all pregnant women in HAS’ service area, Judith comes to the clinic at least once per trimester of her pregnancy to ensure that everything is going well and that she is healthy. On the months that she does not have a consultation, she still returns faithfully to get her prenatal vitamins. Women in the Artibonite Valley have many demands on their time and energy, including food production and preparation, going to market twice a week, and caring for children and other family members. It can be a struggle for them to ensure that they consume enough of the required nutrients to maintain top health during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Thanks to a donation from Vitamin Angels, HAS is able to provide the vitamins free of charge to all pregnant and lactating women, increasing the micronutrient status of women and newborns in the hospital’s service area.

For Judith, this means that pregnancy is less stressful: “These vitamins will help me and my baby stay healthy, and I don’t have to worry about how I can afford it,” says Judith with a smile. She knows that, like her children’s education, investing in the health of her family is crucial to all of their future successes."

Photos and story courtesy of Angel Hertslet.

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Imagine this: By the middle of the 21st century, almost one in every three births and nearly one in every three children younger than 18 years old will be in sub-Saharan Africa. Demographic shifts in the next few decades are likely to fundamentally alter where the world’s children are born and live, and which regions will be in most need of essential services.

A recent Lancet article, The Changing Face of Global Child Demographics, highlighted these intriguing findings from UNICEF. Other key findings that have important implications for policy makers and planners include:  

• - A sharp fall in China’s child population is projected.
• - India’s child population—the world’s largest national cohort of under-18s—is projected to remain stable until 2025 and subsequently decrease.
• -The child population will continue to increase in the USA, which is the only high-income country that will have such a rise.
• - Nigeria’s child population is set to increase by 31 million between 2010 and 2025.

These facts provoke some important questions:

• -Is the world ready for the projected increase in sub-Saharan Africa’s child population of 130 million—roughly the size of Japan’s population, which is presently the world’s tenth most populous country—by 2025? 
• - Are African governments and international donors and agencies prepared?
• - And what must be done to ensure that the 2 billion children set to be born between 2010 and 2025—who, on the basis of present trends, will mostly be born in the poorest districts, communities, and families of every region—get an equal chance to survive, develop, and reach their full potential?

The authors emphasized four points for immediate consideration in global efforts to foster equitable development for children in the 21st century:

• 1. First, governments and donors must recognize that alteration of demographic trends will require corresponding changes in policies, programming, and investments in children. With the global population set to reach 8 billion in 2025, understanding of where children will be born, survive, and live will be crucial for the formulation of solutions that can impel equitable and sustainable human progress, and to ensure that these solutions are adequately resourced. The incorporation of projected demographic changes into development planning is part of a shift towards a more strategic approach to development, encompassing these and other leading indicators of change.
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• 2. Second, child survival efforts must become even more firmly focused on sub-Saharan Africa, on populous low income and middle-income countries where many children younger than 5 years are dying, on fragile states, on the least developed nations, and on the poorest and most geographically isolated households worldwide. The statistical evidence overwhelmingly shows that these populations have the highest burden of child deaths, and are most likely to have the highest share of births and most rapid growth in child numbers. A disproportionate number of children in these populations are still suffering or dying from diseases that are easily preventable in wealthier and more mainstream regions where quality services can be accessed.
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• 3. Third, planning for education, nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and protection services must take full account of the projected child demographic shifts. 4. And, finally, the substantial global increase in elderly dependents means that essential resources might be taken away from services for children and mothers by governments facing ever greater demands from elderly populations. With children unable to vote in most countries, their advocates and policy makers must take steps to guarantee that they do not lose out in a rapidly changing, more populous, and rapidly ageing world.

This blog was written by Eva Haase, Vitamin Angels’ Programs Technical Specialist.

Amy Steets, Senior Program Manager, and I recently returned from 10 days in Southern Malawi where we led 3 vitamin A learning workshops for 22 field partners, 20 of who will begin vitamin A distributions for the first time this month. In all, 52 field partner representatives were given hands-on, practical instruction on vitamin A supplementation and distribution. Vitamin Angels’ learning workshops also provide participants with step-by-step instruction and the opportunity to view standardized service delivery demonstrations and to participate in practical distribution simulations. After an intensive small group simulation, each participant was evaluated for competency based on his/her individual performance of the skills. I am overjoyed to report that all participants passed with flying colors and were promptly awarded Certificates of Competency!  

Our field partners in Malawi exemplify grassroots organizations taking ownership of the problem of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in a country where more than half (53%) of children under age 5 suffer from VAD. Stunting, a recognized proxy indicator of chronic undernutrition, affects almost 48% of children under age 5 in Malawi.  Our field partners in Malawi are comprised of both community-based organizations and international aid organizations. The majority of participants were committed volunteers from the communities they serve, others were career humanitarian aid workers, and all had a tangible passion for reducing child undernutrition, morbidity, and mortality. Their work is intrinsic to providing targeted and sustainable health and nutrition programming. They work in complement to and often closely with national level health services to accurately track the number of children reached with routine vitamin A supplementation and other health services annually.   

Our interactive learning workshops ensure that VA’s field partners are current on VAS best practices. Equally important, workshops provide participants with the technical background and practical skills they need to plan, facilitate, deliver, and monitor an effective vitamin A distribution. My personal joy in knowing that Vitamin Angels is providing a simple, lifesaving health intervention for children in need is renewed every time I am blessed to work with our global network of exemplary field partner representatives.

Vitamin Angels’ Board Chair, Michelle Goolsby, traveled to Western Kenya earlier this year to meet the women and children benefitting from our project there as well as to observe distributions of prenatal vitamins coordinated by our in-country partners, Global Network.

The staff of Nasewa Health Center in Western Kenya sees 80 to 100 expectant mothers per month and provides medical care for infants and children under 5. The Center works with mothers to help educate them on various ways to improve their health and that of their families, including providing them with information on the prevention of malaria, the importance of deworming, the importance of prenatal vitamins, and options for family planning. The women walk from miles around to visit the Center.

Through Vitamin Angels’ partners at Global Network, the Center distributes prenatal vitamins, monitors the pregnancy of the expectant mothers, monitors the babies born and tracks their statistics, immunizations and general health. We were able to speak with a very experienced and knowledgeable nurse, Sylvester Matiani, who has been working at the Center for the last 3 years. Sylvester reports that after the Center began receiving prenatal vitamins from Vitamin Angels two years ago, anemia in mothers has declined significantly, there are fewer premature babies, and fewer babies are born with deformities. Emma Achieng, who works for Global Network and is currently conducting research in the region, tells us the mothers were initially reluctant and didn’t understand the benefits of taking prenatal vitamins, however having seen the positive impact the vitamins have made, the women are now enthusiastically spreading the word and encouraging other expectant mothers to take them. 

After our meeting with the Center staff, we were ushered outside and met by an excited crowd of mothers and children from 18 surrounding local villages, along with the village chief, assistant chiefs, and several village elders. We had the chance to hear story after story of mothers from these villages who had been given prenatal vitamins. All of them told us they felt stronger, their children were healthier and their breast milk was plentiful as a result. I was able to speak at length with an expectant mother, Jacinto Awino, a 28-year-old from Husiera. Jacinto and her husband are both contract laborers who work in the shamba (garden). When she speaks of her children, Jacinto says she prays they grow up healthy, have jobs, and can take good care of themselves. She adds with a smile that she also hopes we will visit frequently and continue to give them prenatal vitamins. 

As Jacinto and I were finishing our conversation, an older woman ran up and urgently grabbed me by the hand and began pulling me toward the hospital, all the while yelling at me in Swahili, which I, of course, didn’t understand. Inside, on the delivery table, was one of the women who had come to talk with us; she had gone into labor, and given birth to a healthy baby girl just seconds before. This older woman insisted I stand there with this exhausted mother and her newborn as the baby girl took her first breaths and cried her first cries. I stood in wonder at the miracle of life, feeling somewhat awkward and intrusive, but clearly not expected or even allowed to leave. The older woman was completely delighted with herself and found it hilarious that a mzungu (white person) would be the third person to welcome this new baby into the world.

What a day!

Vitamin Angels has a new field partner in Honduras, Bridgeway Church, thanks to an existing corporate partner, Vitamin World. Jennifer Hernandez, Regional Trainer for the Southeast region of Vitamin World learned of the need in Honduras through her church and reached out to Vitamin Angels for help. We were pleased to learn more about this qualified group and recently supplied 4,000 doses of vitamin A, 3,500 doses of Albendazole (de-worming) and over 130,000 doses of women’s prenatal vitamins to Bridgeway Church. Jennifer sent back these pictures from the first distribution.

All photos courtesy, Vitamin World.

Since 2009, over 30 partners and associates at Goodwin Procter, LLP have contributed hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services to Vitamin Angels. This year alone they expect to exceed $500,000 in billable hours for Vitamin Angels! The Goodwin Procter team has worked tirelessly to ensure that Vitamin Angels’ interests are protected and provided exceptional counsel on allowing us to navigate all manner of legal matters efficiently and effectively.  

The Vitamin Angels’ cause is one many of the Goodwin Procter team has taken to heart, getting involved on a personal level.
Goodwin Procter partner, Joanne Gray, joined the Vitamin Angels Board of Directors in 2011 and earlier this year participated in an observational visit to the Dominican Republic. She said, “We have cherished the opportunity to contribute to the vital work of this organization, and to partner with an industry that not only provides great products to consumers that improve their everyday lives, but also always answers the call to give back.”

In March of this year, the involvement went a step further when partner Tom Merriam’s son took Vitamin Angels to the College of the Holy Cross for his own fundraising event.

In 2011, Vitamin Angels was pleased to present Goodwin Procter with the Archangel Award for their ongoing commitment to providing services, visibility and support for Vitamin Angels.