Vitamin Angels

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Article featured in Avatar - Volume 4, Issue 1 (July 2010).

Vitamin Angels
By Katrina

How many times have you heard Mom or Dad say, "Alright, be sure to take your vitamins!" More than you can count? Yeah, me too. They don't say it for no reason, though. Specific vitamins are vital for immune systems; without them, we wouldn't be able to fight off infections and would always be sick. Vitamin Angels understands the importance of vitamins to children and infants:

"Our mission is to mobilize and deploy private sector resources to advance availability, access and use of micronutrients, especially vitamin A, by newborns, infants and children in need. Vitamin Angels reduces child mortality worldwide by connecting essential nutrients, especially vitamin A, with infants and children under five."

Vitamin angels focuses on two types of vitamins, specifically, that they feel are especially important to keeping children healthy and happy: Vitamin A and Multivitamins. Currently, an estimated 190 million children suffer from Vitamin A Deficiency, leaving them hugely negatively impacted by diseases as common to us as a seasonal cold. Vitamin Angels find the solution in just one high dosage of Vitamin A, which can secure a child with sufficient Vitamin A with up to six months! To combat this, Operation 20/20, Vitamin Angels' international vitamin A distribution campaign, combines vitamin A to anti-parasitic treatments, and connects this essential vitamin to infants, children, and lactating women.

"In 2010, Operation 20/20 will reach about 20,000,000 infants and children, and another approximately 4,000,000 lactating women in 30 countries on three continents."

Vitamin Angels other current large project is Thrive to Five, an international multi-vitamin campaign. This program is geared towards children under five years of age who are suffering from or struggling with malnutrition. In addition, the Thrive to Five programs seeks to connect expectant mothers with sufficient vitamins to ensure that their child lives a healthy lifestyle. Vitamin Angels collaborates with many of their partners to be able to do this.

"As a result, Thrive to Five currently distributes around 100 million doses of essential micronutrients annually in about 20 countries on four continents, including the United States."

For more information about these two projects as well as some of the other wonderful things Vitamin Angels is doing, please visit www.vitaminangels.org.