Jan 12 2012 --- Sight and Life is extending its partnership with Vitamin Angels for the distribution of vitamin A capsules. With effect from 2012, Sight and Life will transfer to Vitamin Angels the responsibility for both the management of direct distribution of vitamin A and Sight and Life’s initiatives intended to catalyze locally sustainable vitamin A supply and distribution systems.

Vitamin A deficiency is a major contributing cause to poor health among young children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vitamin A deficiency affects an estimated 190 million children worldwide. It leads to xerophthalmia, an eye disorder that can develop into blindness in children. As a vital micronutrient, vitamin A is essential to the body’s immune system and controls the maintenance of body cells. Thus, vitamin A deficiency weakens the body’s defenses, and increases the risk of infectious diseases that can lead to otherwise preventable child deaths. While Sight and Life continues to address the issue of vitamin A deficiency, the organization’s mandate has expanded to include other nutritional topics of importance.

Sight and Life is a not-for-profit nutrition think tank of DSM. Vitamin Angels is a leading independent humanitarian organization dedicated to reducing child mortality by connecting essential micronutrients with at-risk populations worldwide. Sight and Life first entered into a partnership with Vitamin Angels in 2006.

Vitamin Angels specializes in working with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to catalyze locally sustainable micronutrient supply and distribution systems. Effective immediately, all enquires regarding requests for vitamin A capsules or assistance for catalyzing locally sustainable vitamin A supply and distribution systems will be channeled through Vitamin Angels. Through this partnership, Sight and Life seeks to further consolidate and strengthen the capacity of local NGOs to distribute vitamin A capsules.

According to Howard Schiffer, President and Founder of Vitamin Angels, “The close collaboration with Sight and Life will strengthen our collective ability to reach especially those children 6-59 months experiencing vitamin A deficiency who reside in families at the bottom 30% of the income pyramid, by more formally aligning and drawing upon the respective core strengths of each organization.”

Sight and Life Director Klaus Kraemer comments, “By extending the partnering with Vitamin Angels, Sight and Life further strengthens local supply and distribution capacity, mobilizes communities and governments, fosters the creation of public-private partnerships to combat, in particular, vitamin A deficiency, and improves the lives of millions of children and women.”

Sight and Life is a not-for-profit nutrition think tank of DSM. Vitamin Angels is dedicated to reducing child mortality worldwide by advancing availability, access and use of essential micronutrients, especially vitamin A, among at-risk populations worldwide. In 2011, Vitamin Angels is connecting over 24,000,000 children in more than 40 countries, including the US, with the vital nutrients they need as a foundation for good health.