Blog - Vitamin A

The Diocese of Soroti, Uganda, is the newest partner for Pilgrim's distribution of deworming medication. Pilgrim's Aid & Relief Program, supplied with medications through the Agathos Foundation, delivered 2 million doses of mebendezole, a deworming medicine, to the offices of the Diocese of Soroti in early July. World Concern, a non-profit humanitarian organization providing community development and disaster responses, donates these medicines to the Agathos Foundation and Pilgrim for distribution. Bishop George Erwau of the Diocese of Soroti received the meds on behalf of the Church of Uganda (Anglican) from Rev. Dorsey McConnell, Pilgrim Board President, at the offices of the Diocese. Rev. MCConnell was accompanied by James Ochan, Pilgrim Operations Manager, and Patrick Ongodia, Pilgrim Country Coordinator. The Church of Uganda (CoU) will distribute these doses to outlying villages and church clinics in the Teso region, as well as to local hospitals and other clinics.

Dr. Oonyhu Taabon, a retired physician who volunteers with the Diocese, cited Matt 11:5, as he talked about the church's work among the Teso people. "This is the place of the church-the sick are healed, and the gospel is preached this way." He will be assisting with distributions of these much-needed meds.

Deworming is an important public health intervention with immediate benefits for children in poverty. One dose of mebendazole kills all kinds of intestinal worms for 6 months, allowing children the full nutritional benefit from their food. Intestinal worms can steal up to a quarter of the food a child eats, and further weaken the immune system. When mebendazole is administered with vitamin A, the combination boosts immunity for vulnerable children, and can mean survival for many. As part of a deworming and micronutrient consortium of humanitarian and aid groups, Pilgrim receives and distributes millions of donated doses of both these meds in sub-Saharan Africa through partnerships with local organizations.

Related Links: Pastors' Conferences

The life changing impact of de-worming medicine was mentioned in a recent book review by William Easterly in the Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2011. "In 1998, economists Michael Kremer and Ted Miguel participated in a groundbreaking aid program distributing de-worming medicine to school children in western Kenya. There weren't enough doses for every child, so the program administrators randomly selected who was treated. They later compared the results for the two groups. The children who were treated for worm disease, of course, suffered less of the debilitating parasitic infection. They also attended school much more faithfully. A decade later, a follow-up study found that these same students, who were by then young adults, were earning 20% more than those who did not get the drugs. It was quite a payoff..." Read more.

Intestinal worms, or helminths, are common in the developing world, and a significant public health problem. Children are hurt the most by untreated worms. Worms rob already malnourished children of 25% of the food they do eat, and stunt development. Studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) list abdominal pain, diarrhea, intestinal obstruction, anemia, and ulcers as some of the side effects and suggest a link between parasite infestations and both stunted growth and cognitive development.

Pilgrim's Aid and Relief Program is part of world-wide efforts to treat parasite. This year, Pilgrim distributes 4.48 million deworming tablets in Uganda, Southern Sudan, Kenya and Zimbabwe to vulnerable children and their families. The distribution network created by Agathos (now Pilgrim's Aid & Relief Program) delivers not only deworming meds, but also Vitamin A at the same time. Vitamin A deficiency lowers a child's immunity to common childhood diseases and to malaria, and is closely linked to vision problems. Because parasite infections and Vitamin A deficiency are usually found together, both are treated together, and at lower costs. Delivery training and methods for both are simple. The cost of a delivered dose of Vit A is 63 cents/and deworming meds is 38 cents.

You can help in this distribution. Contribute here to Pilgrim's Aid and Relief programs and deworming and Vitamin A distribution. Your gift of 25 dollars de-worms 66 children or provides vitamin A for 40 children. Please consider given generously to this extremely worthwhile and beneficial program.

Related Links: Emergency Food Relief

If you have followed the ongoing aid and relief news in Pilgrim, or through the Agathos Foundation, you are familiar with the name Paula Leen. This remarkable lady, now 76, runs a small orphanage and a huge feeding program for the orphans, destitute, and disabled in Muwira, Zimbabwe. She is also the lifeline for supplies to multiple feeding programs in her local area, as her volunteer staff distributes boxes of nutritionally fortified rice, protein and vegetable dinner packets. Until recently she had been feeding about 4,000 a day, and that number just rose to over 5,000.

Although the nation of Zimbabwe does not have the staggering inflation of the last few years, and some normalcy is returning, there are no national efforts to feed the poor presently, and unlikely to emerge in the near future. Paula Leen and individuals like her attempt to meet the present pressing needs, and anticipate worse times ahead with the failure of the latest harvest. "Auntie" Paula and her staff at Murwira Children's Home are so grateful and thankful to Pilgrim and the Feed My Starving Children Team. Recently the Home received two containers of emergency food packets, enough to provide 541,368 meals.

Paula has concentrated on feeding efforts at schools, with a dual purpose: insuring that the students come to school, and get fed one meal a day. For most this is their only meal each day. She and her helpers have convinced school administrators to feed the children the first thing of the day to help them do better in their learning, since some children were coming to classes so hungry they fainted. The trained feeding team always brings the food themselves, which they prepare on site with assistants, insuring that all are fed in a clean, orderly way, and that the food goes to those most needing it. There are about 10 schools where this daily feeding takes place. . Marange area, where Paula's orphanage is located is known as a stronghold for the Apostolic sects and most of the malnourished and underweight children are from such backgrounds. If a child drops out of school the result is that often the child starves. Currently Auntie Paula is paying school fees for about fifty orphans in primary and secondary schools and some orphans attending special education schools.

One of the feeding programs Paula's work supplies is in Harare, and run by Des Paul. Marc Fulmer has visited this project in Zimbabwe, and reports that Des is one amazing guy. He is probably in his late 60's, has lost one arm in an accident and carries on providing care for scores of children and families in the Harare area. He is well versed in leading edge agriculture thinking and implementation. Des has a solar powered pump on his well at the orphanage - impressive! Des feeds about 100 orphans a day at his home project, and supplies boxes of food to another orphanage in Domboshawa. He scrapes by trusting in God's grace and by doing as much as he possibly can for those in need.

The third part of Paula's work is supplying food to elderly and disabled, especially the families of hydrocephalic children, now numbering more than 60 families (there are many of these in Zimbabwe, possibly because of persistent long-term nutritional deficiencies). Paula's organization requires that family members pick up the food every 2 weeks, and report on the condition of the disabled and elderly in their homes. The death rate from malnutrition is very high among these most disabled

Pilgrim has two partners who supply these emergency food supplies. Feed My Starving Children (FMSC linked) is a Mid-West organization that provides the fortified food packets free to nonprofits for distribution; Pilgrim collects funds to ship containers, each of which contains 270,864 meals and at the current rate supplies Paula's and Des's feeding programs for about two months. Pilgrim and FMSC plan a packing party early in 2012, to be hosted by Damascus Road Church (linked) in Marysville. Watch for announcements and plan to participate in this amazing event to prepare a container's contents. The second supplier, Stop Hunger Now, just awarded Pilgrim a container of food for Paula Leen's work in Zimbabwe. We are pleased to welcome Stop Hunger Now as a relief partner.

Auntie Paula's passion is to restore hope, dignity and love the poor. Act now to support Pilgrim's emergency food program to Zimbabwe. These children are the leaders of Zimbabwe tomorrow. The quality and quantity of food a child has at an early age has a direct effect on their brain development. Please partner with Pilgrim in support of Auntie Paula as she meets the needs of education, food, love, care and health of these vulnerable children.  You can help Pilgrim accomplish this goal. 

Related Links: Emergency Food Relief