Good morning,

Howard has asked me to make sure that you received news of his experiences during his travel to Malawi. He was in Malawi, helping to launch the Operation 20/20 with our in country partners, Save the Children. Notes from Howard's daily experiences, in his own words, are below. Pretty incredible!

Greetings from Mangochi, Malawi!

The 'Warm Heart of Africa'—this is what Malawi is known as and appropriately so. The kindness of the people, their genuine and sincere interest in talking with you, is engaging and captivating.

We began our distribution to 60,000 children here at a small school today outside of Mangochi.

The need here is tremendous—the poverty (and accompanying malnutrition) is everywhere. What you notice people selling by the side of the road is all subsistence stuff; things like mud bricks, bundles of straw, piles of firewood, basic food (tomatoes, some root crops) and only a few crafts.

Edina, the health education teacher, did the most incredible health class before our distribution today. She did this sing-song verse, kind of a call and refrain with the kids that tells about all of the things that Vitamin A did for your body. The kids’ response was to sing out 'Vitamin A' after Edina did her part. Sevan captured it on the video, it was so beautiful. The children were attentive and enthusiastic. I was immediately ready to make Edina our national education coordinator for Africa. I knew the program would be successful, with this level of commitment and enthusiasm.

The distribution itself was seamless—the teachers had lists of all the children and we did a 3 person team; one person holding 2 bowls - one for the Vitamin A and one for the empty capsules. The second person snipped the tops of the Vitamin A capsules and squirted them in the child's mouth, and the third teacher followed by giving the antiparasitic tablet. In the afternoon we did a detailed training on the fine points of the program with the teachers and the staff at Save the Children—all really good people and so appreciative of Operation 20/20.

The need here is bigger than I expected: The average income is $596 per year, and the average lifespan (because of AIDS) is 41.7 years. In a country of only 12.5 million people there are now over 1 million orphans.

We have a lot of work to do!

Best,

Howard

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Howard B Schiffer
Founder & President
VITAMIN ANGELS

P.O. Box 42029
Santa Barbara, CA  93140

Ph: 805 564 8400
Fx: 805 564 8499
Web: www.VitaminAngels.org