Program summary for Operation 20/20.

WHAT WE DO.  Operation 20/20 is the flagship program of Vitamin Angels. Through Operation 20/20, we connect infants, children, and lactating women in need to vitamin A. The objective of OPERATION 20/20 is to reduce child mortality and sickness among the most vulnerable populations, including the underserved or those who do not have easy access to facility-based health services.

We achieve results by working through partners with a local presence in countries with documented vitamin A deficiency and in areas with vulnerable populations. We engage partners using a rigorous vetting process and by forging long term relationships. Our partners employ a variety of proven methods for distributing vitamin A at the community level. For example, vitamin A distribution may be integrated into existing facility-based health services, or distributed through community-based services such as community health days or immunization campaigns. More recently, we have begun to explore innovative distribution schemes that combine local NGO oversight with “donated” private sector logistics systems and supply chains that operate outside the health care system.

WHERE WE WORK.  Operation 20/20 currently works in 32 countries on three continents, and alleviates VAD among infants, children and mothers. The program currently reaches about 10,000,000 infants and children annually and another 500,000 pregnant and lactating women annually.

WHY VITAMIN A.  Vitamin A is a micronutrient essential for proper immune function and maintenance of structural integrity of cells in humans. Cellular structure and a functioning immune system are vital body defenses for reducing the effects of infectious diseases causing death or disease. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major contributing cause to death and sickness among children under five from such common diseases as measles, malaria, acute respiratory tract infections and diarrhea. An estimated 190 million children under five worldwide are vitamin A deficient, the burden of which is concentrated in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Supplementation with vitamin A alone reduces infant and child mortality, combined, dramatically – by approximately 25%.