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Dear Sir,
For decades, Calcutta Rescue has been active in thefight against vitamin A deficiency in Kolkata, India.
SIGHT AND LIFE’s contribution to this fight is ab-solutely essential and greatly appreciated by those dis-advantaged families that have benefited from it.
Vitamin A supplementation is one of the pillars forimproving the health of malnourished children, and itscrucial role in facilitating proper mental and physicaldevelopment is gaining recognition in the medical lit-erature.
The ambulance of the outreach project of Calcutta Rescue Calcutta Rescue works to deliver these supplements tochildren and adults who need them on the street and inthe slums of urban Kolkata, as well as in the larger rural albendazole in order to help prevent vitamin A defi- area surrounding the city. Our Street Medicine program ciency. We follow up on those who fail to attend the has given 130 doses of vitamin A each week for the last clinics for their supplements, doing house visits to three years. Approximately 30 of these doses are the ensure that all patients get the vitamins they need. first of five for children new to our services. Our TargetInitiated Program (TIP) delivers 130 doses of vita - Despite these efforts, many children still need addi- min A in urban Kolkata and another 70 doses in areas tional nutritional supplements. That is where SIGHT covered by our rural TIP outreach program.
AND LIFE comes into the picture. SIGHT ANDLIFE’s donations feed this process of improving nutri- Many children in and around Kolkata are getting inad- tion, and ensuring the proper growth and development equate amounts of vitamin A due to a combination of of some of India’s poorest residents. Research shows that vitamin A deficiency is a majorcontributor to morbidity and mor-tality worldwide. Beyond stuntingchildren’s growth and making themmore susceptible to infection (theinfection-malnutrition cycle), vita-min A deficiency is also an impor-tant cause of blindness in children.
Research also has shown that vita-min A supplements for children atrisk can significantly reduce thechances of damage to sight as wellas help them grow properly andthrive. The need for these supple-ments donated by SIGHT ANDLIFE is most apparent in children who are already hindered by poorgrowth, disease, and malnutrition.
financial constraints on the families, and infections – We try to ensure that these donations reach children especially intestinal parasitic, bacterial, and amoebic infections – which rob growing children of vitaminsand minerals essential for normal development.
We and our patients would like to thank SIGHT AND Vitamin A deficiency, in particular, has a strong asso- LIFE for its generous contribution in the fight against ciation with chronic intestinal parasites, which are very the cycles of poverty, malnutrition, and hopelessness.
common among Kolkata’s urban poor. At our perma-nent clinics, and through our street medicine and TIP outreach programs, Calcutta Rescue treats these infec- Jonathan Reisman, Calcutta Rescue, Kolkata, India tions promptly and regularly deworms children with

Source: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch/site/images/pdfs/articles_presse/2009_sight_and_life.pdf