{"id":14867,"date":"2024-01-13T14:36:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T20:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=14867"},"modified":"2024-01-13T14:47:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T20:47:58","slug":"helen-keller-intl-vitamin-a-dag-hammarskjold-polar-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=14867","title":{"rendered":"Helen Keller Intl => Vitamin A => Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld => Polar Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Elders of WLBOTT are proud to support the good work of Helen Keller International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Helen Keller International, we are guided by the fierce optimism of our co-founder, Helen Keller, who advocated for people who would have otherwise been left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, inequities in health and food systems rob more than one billion people around their world from their right to achieve good health, sound nutrition, and discover their own, true potential. Improving those systems are the only way to improve lives on a large scale and for the long term. – Helen Keller Intl<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Together, with our generous community of donors and partners, we provide the right support at the right time for 73 million children and family members around the world \u2013 helping them to grow and eat nutritious food, stave off malnutrition, build strong immune systems, access life-saving medical treatments, and prevent and treat blindness and vision loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Keller Intl<\/strong>
One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
Floor 2
New York, NY 10017
https:\/\/helenkellerintl.org\/<\/a><\/p>\nHelen Keller Intl<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Images from the Helen Keller Intl website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charity Navigator’s Evaluation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Charity Navigator<\/a> gives Helen Keller Intl 4 stars, 99%!
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GiveWell => Helen Keller Intl<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Helen Keller <\/strong>Intl<\/strong> is one of a handful of non-profits recommended by GiveWell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GiveWell<\/strong> is an interesting organization. They do a hard-headed analysis of non-profits and attempt to quantify their effectiveness in saving lives and reducing suffering.
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They are very open with their analysis, and make it available on their web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GiveWell<\/strong> is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percentage of the organization’s budget that is spent on overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a> History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, who worked at a hedge fund in Connecticut, formed an informal group with colleagues to evaluate charities based on data and performance metrics similar to those they used at the fund, and were surprised to find the data often didn’t exist. The next year, Karnofsky and Hassenfeld formed GiveWell as a nonprofit to provide financial analyst services to donors. They eventually decided to rate charities based on the metric of how much money it cost to save a life.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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GiveWell<\/strong>‘s origin story is detailed in the book Peter Singer’s book<\/a> The Most Good You Can Do: <\/strong>How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is Vitamin A?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Vitamin A<\/strong> is a fat-soluble vitamin and an essential nutrient for animals. [ed. note – this is followed by a lot of complicated science stuff]<\/span><\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Deficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vitamin A deficiency is common in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Deficiency can occur at any age, but is most common in pre-school-age children and pregnant women, the latter due to a need to transfer retinol to the fetus. The causes are low intake of retinol-containing, animal-sourced foods and low intake of carotene-containing, plant-sourced foods. Vitamin A deficiency is estimated to affect approximately one third of children under the age of five around the world, possibly leading to the deaths of 670,000 children under five annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 250,000 and 500,000 children in developing countries become blind each year owing to vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A deficiency is “the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness”, according to UNICEF. It also increases the risk of death from common childhood conditions, such as diarrhea. UNICEF regards addressing vitamin A deficiency as critical to reducing child mortality, the fourth of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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By Our World In Data – https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/grapher\/vitamin-a-supplementation-coverage-rate-children-ages-6-59-months, CC BY 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=86934087<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fortification<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some countries require or recommend fortification of foods. As of January 2022, 37 countries, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, require food fortification of cooking oil, rice, wheat flour or maize (corn) flour with vitamin A, usually as retinyl palmitate or retinyl acetate. Examples include Pakistan, oil, 11.7 mg\/kg and Nigeria, oil, 6 mg\/kg; wheat and maize flour, 2 mg\/kg. An additional 12 countries, mostly in southeast Asia, have a voluntary fortification program. For example, the government of India recommends 7.95 mg\/kg in oil and 0.626 mg\/kg for wheat flour and rice. However, compliance in countries with voluntary fortification is lower than countries with mandatory fortification. No countries in Europe or North America fortify foods with vitamin A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a> Vitamin A supplementation (VAS)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delivery of oral high-dose supplements remains the principal strategy for minimizing deficiency. As of 2017, more than 80 countries worldwide are implementing universal VAS programs targeted to children 6\u201359 months of age through semi-annual national campaigns. Doses in these programs are one dose of 50,000 or 100,000 IU for children aged 6 to 11 months and 100,000 to 200,000 IU for children aged 12 months to five years, every four to six months<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, the World Health Organization estimated that vitamin A supplementation over a decade in 40 countries averted 1.25 million deaths<\/strong> due to vitamin A deficiency. A Cochrane review reported that vitamin A supplementation is associated with a clinically meaningful reduction in morbidity and mortality in children ages six month to five years of age. All-cause mortality was reduced by 14%, and incidences of diarrhea by 12%.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n