Helen Keller International Receives $12 Million Grant from CIDA To Reduce Child Mortality

New York, March 29, 2005 – Helen Keller International (HKI) has signed a $12 million grant with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).  The purpose of the grant is to reduce under-five mortality by ensuring high and sustained vitamin A supplementation (VAS) coverage as the cornerstone of a low-cost, high-impact package of child survival interventions.  Effective vitamin A supplementation has the potential to reduce mortality rates in children aged six to 59 months by an estimated 25%. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that over 42% of children are at risk of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and that controlling VAD will prevent over 645,000 deaths per year.  CIDA is one of the major enablers of VAS worldwide. 

HKI has decided to use its funds from CIDA to target nine African countries: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.  The grant will be carried out over three years in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  HKI and UNICEF are recognized leaders in advancing the right of children to survival, nutrition, and health, and have placed integrated VAD control at the center of these efforts.

HKI has been at the forefront of VAD research since the 1970s, when the agency collaborated with Dr. Alfred Sommer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on his VAD studies in Indonesia.  These groundbreaking studies led to the recognition of VAD control as one of the most cost-effective, high-impact child survival interventions in developing countries. VAD is also the leading cause of preventable pediatric blindness.  Children need at least two high-dosage capsules of vitamin A per year to be protected from VAD and its consequences.

Improving the vitamin A status of children suffering from VAD reduces their risk of mortality from measles by an average of 50%, from diarrhea by an average of 40%, and from all causes of mortality in children aged six to 59 months by an average of 23%.

HKI has been working to control VAD in Africa since 1986 when it undertook the first population-based assessments of VAD in West Africa with the governments of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger. HKI has played a critical role in supporting governments and other partners in integrating VAS into National Immunization Days (NIDs) for poliomyelitis eradication. As polio eradication nears, there is an urgent need to ensure that at least 80% of children aged six to 59 months receive twice-yearly doses of vitamin A through other strategies.

The Honorable Aileen Carroll, Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation, expressed her commitment to VAS in stating, “Canada is a strong supporter of vitamin A supplementation programs --- these programs can save the lives of millions of children. We are committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds, and improving children’s nutrition in developing countries is a priority for reaching this goal.”  This grant from CIDA enables HKI to work with national governments, UNICEF, and other partners to ensure high VAS coverage in some of the most vulnerable countries in Africa, thereby assisting these governments to meet international commitments to reduce child deaths by two-thirds by the year 2015.