A young child in India receiving
vitamins from Howard Schiffer,
President and Founder of
Vitamin Angels

Charity in Motion: Operation 2020

In developing countries, more than 125 million preschoolers and 85 million school-age children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, putting them at risk of malnutrition, other illnesses and even death. Without sufficient vitamin A in their daily diet, up to 500,000 of these children go blind every year.

Vitamin Angels is committed to eradicating childhood blindness due to Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) on the planet by the year 2020. Through a partnership called "Operation 2020,” 7.1 million children, across 17 developing countries, who are at risk of malnutrition and childhood blindness, will receive critical vitamin A supplements and antiparasitic medicines.

Such an endeavor requires much more than the donation of the vitamin A and antiparasitics. In fact it would be fair to say that arranging logistics to get the product to the child is one of the greatest challenges in this endeavor. The medicine has to be sorted, stored, transported overseas and delivered to the children in need. In partnership with Save the Children, indigenous health care providers, Ministries of Health and Education, and other NGOs, staff members from Crown Relocations have been volunteering their time to assist with transportation and logistics. They have been helping to reach children through schools and health facilities in the Pacific Region, South and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Ken Krzeminski from Crown Chicago has led this initiative and has been serving as the central coordinator for over a year. He has been working closely with worldwide colleagues including Ian Grant, Tony Valentine and Michael Hodgson from Crown Toronto; as well as Henry Baar, Sylvia O’Pray and Lex Gort from Crown Rotterdam.

Vitamin Angels and Save the Children are now happy to announce that the first shipment of vitamins has been completed. They were delivered to Save the Children country offices in Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Sudan, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bolivia, El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua. Many of the distributions to children are already taking place.

In addition to blindness, studies show that parasitic infections in children can prevent adequate absorption of essential nutrients, including Vitamin A. Hundreds of millions of children in developing countries suffer from parasitic infections, including 320 million children with roundworm; 233 million with whipworm and 239 million with hookworm—all of which can be treated with a single deworming pill. Eliminating parasitic infections also has proven to help prevent anemia, malnutrition and slowed mental and physical development in children.

Vitamin Angels is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization dedicated to providing basic nutrition and fighting vitamin A deficiency childhood blindness around the world since 1994. For more information or to make a donation to Vitamin Angels visit its Web site at www.VitaminAngels.org.

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. For more than 75 years, Save the Children has been helping children survive and thrive by improving their health, education and economic opportunities and, in times of acute crisis, mobilizing rapid lifesaving assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters. For more information about Save the Children, visit its Web site at: http://www.savethechildren.org.

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