Good morning,

Howard has asked me to make sure that you received news of his experiences during his travel to Mozambique. He was in Mozambique 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 Maputo, Mozambique!

We are finally back in Maputo after 2 successful distributions and as you may have guessed zero internet access. I need to lie down - my back is stiff but I wanted to get something off to you to send out to all of our friends.
Our in-country partner, Save the Children has been wonderful here—really lovely people, very competent and well organized at the village level. Everything went smoothly. Tomorrow we get on a 30+ hour flight to El Salvador. I am praying that my back and stomach (also a little sensitive in the last 24 hours) have a miraculous recovery!

For most of the children in Mozambique, a classroom means a large shade tree under which the students and a teacher can gather for their daily lessons.

No electricity, no water, no latrines, and of course no books for the children.

The two distributions that Vitamin Angels did here were outside of the village of Xai-Xai (pronounced Chai-Chai). There actually is a school - the classrooms walls are woven straw with a tin roof. Still no electricity, or books but there is a 'play pump' (a playground toy that the children can spin around on) to pump the water.

The poverty here is acute, maybe a little less so than other countries we work in as the people do have small plots of land and small gardens (mostly corn which is solely dependent on the rain - no irrigation) but 70% of the children are still Vitamin A deficient and parasites are a problem.

Operation 20/20 will have a major impact on these children's lives - this is the first program in the region to combine Vitamin A and deworming medicine, and to commit to a 3 year campaign. The health care workers we are working with here are incredible - very dedicated, well organized and loving to the children.

The best news of all is that the school is doing a gardening program and we spoke with Save the Children about making sure to focus on the Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetable in the region. mO

As always the children were wonderful; playful, engaged and of course totally fascinated by our still camera and video camera!

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