Helen Keller International and Partners Provide Life- and Sight-Saving Vitamin A to over 900,000 Children in Sierra Leone.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, 17 th November, 2007- Sierra Leone held its second bi-annual vitamin A distribution campaign and reached over 900,000 children thanks to the involvement and support of Helen Keller International (HKI), the Government of Sierra Leone, UNICEF, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB).

In 2005, Sierra Leone had the highest under-five child mortality rate in the world ( The State of the World's Children 2007, UNICEF), and in 2007, it was estimated that 40% of children were at risk of vitamin A deficiency (VAD). VAD not only results in blindness, but, more importantly, in increased child morbidity and mortality. Conversely, providing vitamin A to children not only improves eyesight, but can also reduce childhood mortality by 23-34%.

HKI worked with the government and other partners to integrate distribution of vitamin A capsules and mebendazole, a deworming medicine that addresses anemia, into the National Neonatal Tetanus Eradication campaign from November 19 th through the 25 th, 2007. The campaign was launched by Sierra Leone’s new First Lady, Madam Sia Nyama Koroma, and attracted crowds of spectators in addition to the large numbers of women and children who wanted to receive the treatments. The First Lady, who is also a nurse, was asked to administer a series of tetanus injections to women of reproductive age, and gave vitamin A and mebendazole to the children.

The local SCB branch not only provided funds to support the project through their "Seeing is Believing" initiative, but bank staff also volunteered to distribute vitamin A in some of the most neglected regions of Freetown’s slum areas.

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