|
A global campaign to distribute high-dose
vitamin A capsules to malnourished children has saved the lives
of almost one million children around the world since 1998.
In one prime example of the program's success, organizers in Nepal
say childhood vitamin A deficiency should be virtually eradicated
in that country within the next 2 years.
If you provide children with enough vitamin A then their mortality
drops about 23%, and that makes vitamin A distribution one of the
most essential child survival programs.
The global campaign -- launched in 1997 -- is a partnership between
UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the governments
of Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, and the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Vitamin A is an essential part of basic
nutrition -- the lack of which can severely compromise
the body's immune system, raising risks for childhood illnesses
such as diarrhea and measles.
According to UNICEF, vitamin A deficiency
is a fact of life in 72 countries, primarily in Asia and Africa.
The nice thing about vitamin A is that if you eat a lot, then it
gets stored in the body, so you can give -- with one capsule --
enough to cover a child's need for 4 to 6 months.
So basically, if you can give two capsules a year to a child you
can prevent that child from becoming vitamin A deficient, and you
can prevent all the negative consequences thereof.
Striking Success In Nepal
The benefits of UNICEF's vitamin A outreach program are strikingly
evident in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, where 9 million of
the country's 23 million people live on less than $1 per day.
Against this back-drop, UNICEF, USAID, the Nepali government's
Ministry of Health, and local non-governmental partners are making
vitamin A capsules available to almost 4 million children between
6 months and 5 years of age.
The total cost of the project is just
over $2 million a year -- less than $1 per child.
Overcoming difficulties such as widespread illiteracy and a harsh
terrain, Nepal has become one of the vitamin A campaign's success
stories. In fact, UNICEF estimates that the program saved as
many as 200,000 lives between 1993
(when the program started) and 2000. That success has not come easily,
however.
You're not just challenging poverty. You're also challenging an
entire tradition of prejudicial attitudes towards women. It cuts
across all of our work. It starts with getting the mother to bargain
with her husband to take off a half day of work in order to bring
her child in for a vaccination or a vitamin A capsule.
In Nepal's case, trust is being built by groups of local women
known as Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). These unpaid,
often uneducated and illiterate volunteers have become the moral
and physical backbone of the program -- mobilizing their local community
to take advantage of UNICEF's vitamin A distribution efforts.
Already over 90% of Nepalese children have received their yearly
dosage of vitamin A. USAID Nepal believes that despite low literacy
rates and its rugged terrain, 100% coverage will be reached by
2002.
United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) Hanoi February 12, 2001
| 