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Join us for the Celebration
of
15 million lifetimes!
This year Vitamin Angels and New Hope Natural Media are holding the largest industry-wide event at the Natural Products Expo East. Vitamin Angels is hosting our annual Celebration of Angels fundraiser on Friday, September 25th from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the Boston Convention Center, Grand Ballroom and YOU’RE INVITED! This year’s free event invites attendees to experience the difference they and their companies can make by partnering with Vitamin Angels. It is truly going to be an incredible evening with a host of informational and fun experiences to raise awareness and enthusiasm for our cause. Come join us to for a night like no other!
 Vitamin Angels is looking for 100 volunteers to help us during the event! If you are interested in supporting us by helping direct and encourage others to get involved,contact us! |
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Domestic Thrive to Five program expands!
Vitamin Angels is pleased to announce that with the recent donation of ProCaps Laboratories prenatal vitamins we are significantly expanding our domestic Thrive to  Five program! Vitamin Angels will be sending over 6,500,000 prenatal vitamins to clinics and food banks all over the U.S. These vitamins will cover the needs of 18,641 expecting and new mothers this year. Here are our most recent additions to the program:
- 45,360 bottles of prenatal vitamins to the Mississippi Food Network
(a network of all Mississippi state food banks)
- 6,048 bottles to the United Way Food Bank in Alaska
- 6,048 bottles to the Food Bank of Central Louisiana
- 6,048 bottles to the Huntington Food Bank in West Virginia
- 12,096 bottles to the Utah Food Bank
Support our Thrive to Five program |
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International Health Partners Tanzania
 Vitamin Angels is proud to be partnering with International Health Partners Tanzania and has supplied prenatal vitamins for 560 women in Mwanza, where a Women’s Health and Birthing Center is currently being renovated. International Health Partners is a non-profit organization formed to facilitate international partnerships to improve access to health care for the people of Tanzania. Among their ongoing projects is a specialized non-profit pediatric HIV/AIDS hospital being built in Dar es Salaam-Bagamoyo and the building of a facility in Dodoma where women can come together to work and where micro-loans are being granted to women for projects to increase self-sufficiency.
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Vitamin Angels in Sri Lanka
 Vitamin Angels is providing vitamin A and daily multivitamins to 1,000 children in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps in the Mullaitivu and Vavuniya Districts of Sri Lanka through our partnership with Sri Lankan Aid. Sri Lankan Aid is a nonprofit which is dedicated to promoting positive development in Sri Lanka’s most disenfranchised areas. A BBC news story recently discussed the great need for assistance, specifically for nutrition-based feeding programs, in Sri Lankan IDP camps. The article noted that thousands of children are suffering from malnutrition due to limited access to nutrient rich foods as a result of the ongoing civil war and associated conflicts.
We recently heard from one of Sri Lankan Aid’s field workers, read more here.
Learn more about our project in Sri Lanka. |
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To see more of our projects in countries around the world, learn about our partners and how many children we are reaching, check out our projects pages:
Learn more about our projects in Operation 20/20 | Thrive to Five |
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| We would like to pay special thanks to those partners who have been especially generous in the recent months. Each and every supporter is truly valuable and makes our work possible; to see a list of all our donors, check out our Contributors page. |
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Now Foods
 Now Foods has been with Vitamin Angels from the very beginning, providing support through ever-growing monetary and in-kind donations. Last year, Now celebrated their 40th anniversary by pledging to provide Vitamin Angels with 40,000,000 doses of vitamin A over the next 10 years. Last year, and again this year, we have been the glad intermediaries of 4 million doses of vitamin A for Operation 20/20 which have since been passed on to children in need in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Cote d’Ivoire, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Haiti, Vietnam and beyond. Now’s commitment to improving the nutritional status of children around the world has played a vital role in Vitamin Angels’ success. Thank you Now Foods! |
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ProCaps Laboratories
 ProCaps Laboratories Founder Andrew Lessman has proven his commitment to improving the health of individuals around the world, not only through ProCaps significant donations of prenatal vitamins to our Thrive to Five program but also through notable environmental efforts like producing all of their supplements with solar power! Starting last year, ProCaps increased their commitment to Vitamin Angels by pledging to donate one bottle of prenatal vitamins to Vitamin Angels for each bottle or kit of supplements sold during the Today’s Special portion of their shows airing on the Home Shopping Network. Last year’s successful sales resulted in the donation of over 61 million doses of women’s multivitamins. Going strong, this year’s sales have helped us expand our domestic programs and reach thousands of women in Guatemala and Uzbekistan. Our many Thanks, ProCaps! |
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Rainbow Light
 A dedicated partner for over 10 years and founding in-kind prenatal donor, Rainbow Light has contributed substantially to our accomplishments in improving global maternal and child health. Creators of a ground-breaking 10:1 donation program for their women’s prenatal vitamins, Rainbow Light has made it possible for many thousands of expecting and new mothers around the world to have access to essential nutrients. This year’s donations to date are reaching women in Haiti through our Thrive to Five program. Rainbow Light is expanding their commitment this year with the addition of the generous 10:1 match for their children’s multivitamin. Rainbow Light, Thank you for your continued support! |
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| Looking for ways to get involved? Our new website makes it easier than ever to make a difference and be part of the solution! Check out our Get Involved section for ideas. |
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Lemonade for Vitamin Angels
 What’s better than lemonade on a hot summer day? Lemonade for a great cause!
8 year old Declan set up a lemonade stand to help teach others about our important work and raised $50! Remember, all it takes is 25 cents to provide one child with vitamin A for a whole year. So in one afternoon, this one child was able to impact the lives of 200 children, and refresh many passersby at the same time! Inspired yet? Get Involved! |
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Birthday Fundraising on Facebook!
For Kristy Mantarro’s birthday all she wants is to support Vitamin Angels! Kristy is putting her dream to work through Causes on Facebook by creating a fundraising page  and asking for donations in place of gifts for her birthday. Kristy works for one of our long time partners, the Vitamin Shoppe, and was inspired by our Unconventional Angels video. Through mission trips she has experienced first hand some of the countries we work in and the need of the children we serve. She know’s the importance of nutrition and the difference it can make in the lives of these children. Check out her page and consider creating your own! Thanks Kristy and Happy Birthday! |
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Speciality Color Services
 Santa Barbara local printing company, Specialty Color Services has teamed up with Vitamin Angels to introduce a new printing technique which showcases yet another way vitamins can improve our lives!
This new technique uses coffee and an essential ingredient in the developer, vitamin C, to develop photos and create a unique and beautiful effect on finished photographs. Specialty Color Services is donating $1 from each roll of film processed in coffee to Vitamin Angels! Together we are using essential nutrients to enrich lives and art, check it out! |
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Putumayo Kids sing the way to Healthy Eating and Healthy Children
This summer, Putumayo Kids celebrates the joys of eating with a brand new, globe- trotting CD from their award-winning children’s Playground series. Putumayo Kids is committed to introducing children to other cultures through great music from around the world. This unique CD also introduces children to healthy eating and, at the same time, a portion of the proceeds goes to Vitamin Angels. So while your child learns how to 'Eat Like a Rainbow' another child will be receiving the essential nutrients he or she needs to grow up healthy and strong. Preview the album and participate in their Picnic Playground Recipe Contest here, or purchase the album! |
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PBS Healing Quest to feature Vitamin Angels’ Howard Schiffer
Seattle/Tacoma local PBS station KBTC Channel 28, will be airing a Healing Quest Pledge Special called the Best of Healing. The show will include a piece  titled Beacons of Healing that will feature Howard Schiffer, founder and president of Vitamin Angels, among esteemed members of the industry including Mehmet Oz, Andrew Weil and Mark Hyman. Seattle supporters can tune in on 8/30 – 10:00am, 9/2 – 10:00am, 9/12-12:30pm or 9/20 -9:30am, all show times are PST. |
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| Have a great story to share? We would love to hear from you! Send Brittany an email and let us know what you are doing to support Vitamin Angels! |
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Dear Friends,
I read a poem recently about how casually we sometimes take for granted 'just a normal day.' It was a powerful wake up call to how blessed we are and how people all over the world living in the midst of war, struggling with hunger or homelessness, or fighting off sickness and disease, pray every day of their lives to return to 'normal' and to one day be able to find comfort in 'just a normal day.'
 In response to 9/11, musician Michael Franti has been putting on his Power to the
Peaceful festivals every year to promote ways to make this world a more peaceful place. This year, the free Power to the Peaceful event will be held in Golden Gate Park on Saturday, September 12th. I’ll be speaking on Saturday to what is expected to be a crowd of 70,000 people, and participating in the Fighting Global Hunger: Modernizing Our Approach to Food Security panel discussion Sunday afternoon. Vitamin Angels staff will be there with a booth - come visit us!
And for all of those who want to pack their weekends to the brim, our friends at The Organic Center are having a great event in Berkeley this same weekend with Clif Bar, called For the Health of Our World, from 6:30 to 9:30pm on Saturday, September 12th.
I'll speaking at the American Association of
Naturopathic Physicians' Physicians Heal Thy Planet Convention in Tacoma on Wednesday, August 18th.
And of course make sure you plan to attend our Celebration of
Angels event in Boston at Expo East next month, on Friday, September 25th. We promise you the best Celebration of Angels event ever!
I
hope you’re having a glorious summer and many 'normal' days!
 Best,
Howard Schiffer, President
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Assessing Past Spending on Global Health
In response to the recent economic downturn and continuing debate over whether development aid should continue, its effectiveness, and how future decreases in aid may influence global health, researchers at The Lancet conducted a comprehensive survey to analyze the historical source and use of development assistance for health (DAH). The group notes that "timely and reliable information about global health resource flows to low-income and middle-income countries" was lacking, and thus went about assessing changes to DAH in the report titled "Financing of global health: tracking development assistance for health from 1990 to 2007."
DAH, defined by the group as all funding coming from public and private institutions meant to serve as health-related development assistance to low-income and middle-income countries, was found to have grown substantially during the period of time considered. As noted in the report, between 1990 and 2007 DAH increased from $5.6 billion to $21.8 billion, with the most substantial percentage of funding going to HIV/AIDS related uses in the latter years. Increased overall funding for health did lead to a reduction in disease burden, however the researchers did not find a positive correlation between DAH and 'per head' GDP.
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State of the World’s Children, for youth
The US Fund for Unicef recently published the 2009 State of the World’s Children (SOWC), a report outlining conditions that affect children worldwide. The report addresses the main causes of maternal and newborn mortality as well as the scale and scope of the problem. Now, Unicef has released Child Survival: A Global Challenge, the youth version of the SOWC report to bring these very important issues to the a younger audience.
This new report includes a summary of the findings of the SWOC using simple language and easy to understand numbers in an effort to educate the youth of the industrialized world about the global status of maternal and newborn health. Including such statistics as “the average lifetime risk of a woman in one of the least developed countries dying from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth is more than 300 times greater than that of a woman living in an industrialized country," the report expands on what it deems the “greatest health divide in the world." The report includes a number of basic graphs and charts that clearly illustrate where maternal and neonatal mortality is highest, causes of death and more. Child Survival: A Global Challenge concludes with a summary of cost-effective strategies for reducing maternal and newborn mortality rates including: advocating for prenatal care, use of skilled birth attendants, nutrition counseling and supplementation for pregnant and nursing mothers and more.
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Celebration of Angels 2009
Join Vitamin Angels and New Hope at Expo East and help us reach 15 million children! We are expecting over one thousand people to attend. Join the party by becoming a Celebration of Angels sponsor today! Contact us for
more
information.
Connect. Celebrate. Save Lives. 09.25.09! |
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