Vitamin A helps boost immunity and protects children under five from preventable diseases and blindness.
Supplementing children under five with two doses of vitamin A per year reduces their chance of dying, reduces incidence of diarrhoea, and incrementally reduces the odds of child stunting.
Vitamin A deficiency puts children at greater risk of disease and early death and is the leading cause of preventable child blindness.
The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) contributes to:
Increased morbidity and mortality due to a weakened immune system
Slowed growth and development
Visual system disorders, including, xerophthalmia, irreversible blindness and night blindness
Supplementing children between the ages of six months and five years with two doses of vitamin A per year reduces:
Morbidity and mortality in children affected by VAD:
Mortality:
12 to 24% reduction in overall risk of death
12% reduction in death due to diarrhea
Morbidities:
15% reduced incidence of diarrhoea
50% reduced incidence of measles
Video
10 billion reasons vitamin A should be called vitamin “Eh!”
Did you know that vitamin A saves lives? For more than 25 years, Nutrition International, based in Canada, has provided more than 10 billion capsules of vitamin A for children under five. This low-cost intervention prevents blindness, strengthens immune systems and has helped hundreds of millions of children around the world grow up stronger and healthier. That’s a lot of Canadian know-how, doing a lot of good ― and it’s time we recognized it.
How we help
We are world leaders in vitamin A supplementation.
We work with vitamin A capsule manufacturers around the world
In partnership with UNICEF, we work with vitamin A capsule manufacturers to ensure that the capsules produced can survive transport to hot climates, have a shelf life of three years, deliver a consistent dose of vitamin A to every child, and can be easily and safely administered by frontline health workers.
We support health systems to deliver vitamin A
Working closely with UNICEF and other partners, we support ministries of health to deliver vitamin A supplementation programs to preschool age children.
Global Alliance for Vitamin A
We share and promote research on vitamin A
We chair the Global Alliance for Vitamin A (GAVA), which is an informal alliance of partners whose mission is to accelerate progress toward improved child survival and reduce the consequences of vitamin A deficiency worldwide. GAVA provides a forum for achieving consensus on research, policy, and program evidence-based approaches to achieve optimal vitamin A intake among vulnerable populations.
Browse our complete list of projects to learn about how we deliver high-impact, low-cost, evidence-based nutrition programs for those who need it most.