Good morning,

Howard has asked me to make sure that you received news of his latest experiences during his travel to India. He is in India, helping to launch distributions of Vitamin A and Deworming medicines with our program partners who work directly with the 1.1 million children and mothers that we reach in our Operation 20/20 program in various locations in India. Notes from Howard's daily experiences, in his own words, are below. Pretty amazing!--Ashley

I awoke at about 1:30am a couple of night ago to the sound of my filmmaker and a journalist who is traveling with us, violently throwing up. The drink we had been offered (and which they accepted) at the Krishna Temple (which we are now calling Krishna Kola) did not sit well with them. First rule of India travel - Do not drink anything but bottled water! It is a hard lesson to learn, especially when you have 2 plane flights, a distribution, and then extensive travel ahead of you to get to the next location.

Click here to watch Howard in Calcutta, India right now

We arrived at the island village outside of Calcutta, after a 4 hour car ride, a 1/2 hour rickshaw ride, a 1 hour boat ride and a 15 minute walk. When we got off the boat and rounded the top of the hill, we were faced with 60 beautiful children waiting to greet us, throw flower petals at us and sing us a welcoming song. In that moment all of our travels became instantly worth it.

The distribution went really well. I spoke with the mothers, we distributed the vitamin A and deworming medicine, did our education program and played with the children. Afterwards a few of the mothers invited me to come see their homes. This work is such a gift. When you get to see these incredible children and how happy they are that we have come to see them, you know how lucky we are to get to do this work.

The India film should be out in the next month- We'll be sending more pod casts today, just so you can get to meet these kids. Your support makes this possible!

Best,

Howard

--
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