Vitamin Angels was high in the Andes of Peru last week. We want to share our experience there, as captured by our photographer Matt Dayka. We love the vivid woolen clothes. We also love the dignity and strength in the faces of those who live and thrive in the unique, sometimes hard, life at a high altitude. To learn more about Vitamin Angels' trip to Peru, including Notes from the Field, tweets and our blog, click here.

Our drive to the small village of Sasicancha was long and breathtaking. The jutting peaks of the Andes, rich green from the rains and set against a purple grey backdrop could literally knock the wind out of you, and did – all of us have experienced various symptoms of altitude sickness since arriving. We climbed higher and higher, peaking at 14,200ft. I was caught between my awe for the beauty of these incredible surroundings and my realization that people were living here. This is a great adventure and experience, but a life at these altitudes in the Southern Andes of Peru is anything but easy.

At these altitudes, because of the rain and the cold, little can be cultivated besides potatoes. Peru has over 2,000 types of potatoes but this vegetable is high in starch and low in nutritional content. The first thing our group noticed when we were being serenaded by the elementary school children in Sasicancha was how many of them were sniffling and coughing; it was a deep cough, a respiratory cold or infection. Marina from DESEA Peru, our in country partner, leaned over and said that the children only have the open-toed sandals they are wearing, so their feet are exposed to the elements. The majority of the children had dark red scabs on their cheeks from extreme exposure to the sun at this altitude.

After the greeting they prepared for us, we went to spend some time with the preschoolers. There were about 9 children in the room, the teacher explained that 15 children were sick so their mothers had taken them to work. I don’t think the children knew what to make of us, some were smiling and laughing and others were very docile and quite. Sandra McGirr, the Program Director for DESEA Peru told us that the Quechua people are very shy. It has taken her a long time to form close bonds with the women and children in these communities. After an hour the preschoolers became more comfortable with us and opened up.

The women we have met, while shy, have been powerful. To be leading this life takes strength and perseverance beyond my imagination. The women rise early to cook and take care of the children and the animals. They carry babies on their back and walk many, many miles in a day. The husbands typically work as porters on the Inca Trail and are gone a couple times a month for 4-5 days. Even in these conditions none of the women we interviewed had lost a baby. Their babies are born with low birth weights and the prenatal vitamins have helped significantly. Every woman we interviewed said she felt healthier, had less aches and pains during pregnancy and more breast milk. There is also a change in the children. The teacher at Sasicancha noted an increase in energy and ability to pay attention and retain information. As one of the women I met, Facundina, said of her younger daughter, “she knows more.”

I’m inspired by the women that we are working with and meeting. Our in-country partners from DESEA Peru are incredible and brilliant. Quecha is only a spoken language and very difficult to learn, if it wasn’t for Vilma, who translates from Quecha to Spanish and Sandra who translates from Spanish to English, we would never get to hear these women’s stories. If it wasn’t for the Qhalis who are trained by DESEA Peru to share information about health, nutrition, pregnancy and birth control with their villages, then we wouldn’t have such inspiring and successful stories to share.

We are blessed to be here doing this work!

The Sahel region of West and Central Africa suffered through the droughts of 2011 and the consequent poor harvests and livestock production as well as rising food prices. The effects of the drought have carried over into 2012: the Sahel food crisis has caused widespread starvation and malnutrition. While this arid area immediately south of the Sahara is no stranger to harsh conditions, this “hunger season” is particularly devastating.

UNICEF reported that an estimated 1 million children throughout the wider Sahel region, including Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Mauritania, will require lifesaving treatment for severe malnutrition. UNICEF West and Central Regional Director David Gressly says, “The malnutrition crisis is real, and if adequate treatment is not provided, it can quickly lead to death. We need to act immediately to save the lives of the one million children who are at high risk.” UNICEF says $30 million is necessary for effective treatment throughout the region.

Vitamin Angels provides essential nutrients to children and moms in the Sahel region throughOperation 20/20 in Cameroon, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and through Thrive to Five, in Cameroon and Nigeria. We hope to work alongside organizations like UNICEF to make an impact in the lives of those suffering.

Mother Teresa famously said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” A 7-year-old named Madilyn embodies this sentiment. We were inspired by the story of Madilyn and her Vitamin Angels Giving Quarter Jar and wanted to learn more.

Madilyn gets a quarter every time she’s good – pretty standard incentive for good behavior. But, unlike many children, Madilyn chooses to donate those quarters to Vitamin Angels. Madilyn and her mother Hillary found Vitamin Angels from a home school geography lesson. Due to Madilyn’s love of travel and meeting new people, Hillary began teaching her the different continents. Madilyn was particularly interested in Africa – learning about the culture, the geography, the people. She eagerly recites to anyone who will listen, "Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique!"

Hillary describes Madilyn as having a keen empathy for others; she wanted to find a way to help people in the continent she was fascinated by. Together, they found Vitamin Angels – a nonprofit which not only works in Africa, but one whose mission is to prevent loss of eyesight. This is of particular importance to Madilyn and Hillary. Madilyn was born with bilateral anophthalmia which caused facial abnormalities and blindness. Hillary says:

“...as we researched more and more about the cultures of this area we found somewhat disturbing information about the lack of nutrients, especially vitamin A, causing numerous cases of blindness and vision problems for the children there.To know the statistics and think how these cases of blindness could be prevented was heartbreaking and in some ways, it angered me to know that so many children, not so different than my own, were suffering in a way that could be helped.”

Hillary doesn’t know if Madilyn fully understands that she is blind because she has been so from birth. Hillary finds it difficult to explain concepts like light, which they’re learning about as they study the planets. Madilyn does, however, realize that she is helping other children and feels a sense of commonality with them.

Hillary was amazed to learn that it takes just a quarter a year to help a child. Inspired by the fact that helping one child takes just 25 cents, Hillary and Madilyn started a Quarter Jar to collect money for Vitamin Angels. Each time Madilyn is polite, independent (gets her own drink from the refrigerator, for example), or reads her Braille books, Hillary gives her a quarter to put in the Giving Jar. They decorated it with tactile felt stickers that make the jar look, and feel, pretty.

Madilyn and her Giving Jar

Madilyn looks forward to putting quarters in the jar to help children. She can hear the jingle of the money and feel the jar getting heavier and she knows they’re making progress.

This story is not just about the extraordinary Madilyn; it’s about Hillary’s strength as a mother. Hillary had Madilyn at 20 years old, learning two months before Madilyn’s birth that her child would have bilateral anophthalmia. She learned that her daughter would be born blind, with facial abnormalities and developmental disabilities. She was a young single mom, reliant upon the support of her mother and three sisters. When Madilyn was less than a year old, Hillary went back to school and earned her B.S. in Electrical Engineering. She was a full-time mom and engineering student. While in school, she met her husband, Jacob, who was more than willing to step into the father role in Madilyn’s life. Hillary counts herself as incredibly blessed with a wonderful husband and amazing daughter.

We’re blessed to have people like Hillary and Madilyn behind Vitamin Angels.

Amy Steets is the Program Manager at Vitamin Angels. She works tirelessly to connect nutrients with children and pregnant women. After seeing the article “A Nutrition Puzzle” in the February 18, 2012 issue of the Economist, she wrote this letter to the editor. We’ve reprinted it as is:

Dear Editor,

I find it exceedingly appropriate that The Economist is reporting on matters related to nutrition on a more frequent basis. Your emphasis is paralleling a global shift in understanding of the root cause of child mortality around the world.

In “The Nutrition Puzzle” you quote Amartya Sen saying “what really matters with food is not the overall supply, but individual access.” This sentiment not only historically applies to food, but distribution of micronutrient supplements as well. The long-term approach to reaching impoverished children with micronutrient supplementation has been to target children through individual country Ministries of Health. Take vitamin A, a micronutrient that is known to reduce child mortality by up to 24%, for example. UNICEF is the world’s largest distributor of vitamin A and is reaching almost 400 million children each year through Government Ministries of Health in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. While this model has been largely successful at reaching approximately 70% of all eligible children, 30% of eligible children systematically go unreached because they don’t have access to government health systems. It behooves policy makers, Governments, international non-profit organizations, financiers of these programs, and information sources like The Economist to focus attention on how to create access for the 150 million children that don’t receive adequate nutrition during their first 1000 days of life. If vitamin A is any reflection of the need for improved access to nutritional interventions, we have a lot of work to do.

I work for a non-profit organization called Vitamin Angels. We are reaching 25 million children by giving access to vitamin A through local non-governmental organization partners. These partners tend to reside in areas that do not have access to government supplies and are playing a key part in reaching the unreached 30% of eligible children. By working outside of existing supply chains, this network that we are developing is creating an open door to reach children that would otherwise systematically go unreached. Lets continue to collectively focus our efforts on improving nutrition worldwide, but with an emphasis on making sure we don’t forget to reach those most in need.

Amy Steets,

Program Manager Vitamin Angels

Amy Steets is the woman in blue in the above picture.

Imagine what a coincidence it would be to see your next door neighbor halfway around the world. That’s sort of what happened to Chad Relief Foundation president Bill Felstiner when he chanced upon this Vitamin Angels bottle of vitamin A when inspecting a health center in Chad last month.

Chad Relief Foundation is, like Vitamin Angels, a nonprofit based in Santa Barbara and one of Vitamin Angels’ partners in Chad.

CRF took these pictures at a UNHCR camp called Moyo, a few kilometers outside of Haraze in southeastern Chad. The vitamins arrived by Fedex from Santa Barbara to the Centre de Support en Santé Internationale (CSSI) in N'Djamena (the capital of Chad), then by UN Humanitarian Air Service plane to Am Timan and finally driven by a UN convoy for five hours over rutted roads to Haraze. CSSI is the Chadian Partner of the Chad Relief Foundation and one of Vitamin Angels' partners in Chad. Bill Felstiner, the President of CRF, came upon the bottle and recognized the familiar logo as a fellow Santa Barbara organization – and one of his partners.

In 2011, Vitamin Angels reached 10,000 Chadian children with vitamin A through our Operation 20/20 program. This year, Vitamin Angels plans to increase our reach to almost 24,000 children. This increase is a direct result of Bill's work and assistance, as he and CRF have identified additional villages and UNHCR camps that need nutritional support.

Photos credited to Chad Relief Foundation.

*You may have noticed, the vitamin A bottle pictured shows VA's old logo. Due to shipping and import/export lead times our product generally carries a 3 yr expiration date. Some product carrying our old branding may yet be in circulation.

Our partner, the Cameroon Christian Medical Welfare Foundation, sent us this photo below of a Muslim women receiving prenatal vitamins! The organization is also conducting a training next week for Muslim men to help them understand the benefits of having their wives take prenatal vitamins.

In 2011 we reached 746 women with multivitamins, 21,000 children with vitamin A, and 11,750 children with albendazole in Cameroon. Vitamin Angels will be providing more product to Cameroon in the coming months as this program continues.