Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - April 2009 - Index

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE
Eighty per cent of women
in South Asia and sub-
Saharan Africa are severely
anaemic. Forty per cent of
the world’s malnou-rished
children live in India.
Horrifying as the statistics
are, the good news is that the
situation is readily remediable.
And one organization is at
the forefront of the battle
against hidden hunger.
Venkatesh Mannar, president
of the Ottawa-based Micronutrient
Initiative, says his
organization is actively involved
in 20 countries and their
micronutrient products reach
70 countries around the world.
Mannar explains hidden
hunger.
People reach for food when
GRANT’S COMMUNITY ACHIEVERS
GRANT’S IS PROUD TO PRESENT THIS
SERIES ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING
A DIFFERENCE IN THE COMMUNITY
MICRONUTRIENT INITIATIVE/LUC LAVIOLETTE
hungry, but though they may
need vitamins or minerals, they
are not hungry for them, and this
hidden hunger can be the cause
of severe deficiencies that can
cause serious health issues, and
even death.
Vitamin A deficiency, for
instance, leads to poor immunity,
making the person more
Venkatesh Mannar
PRESIDENT,
MICRONUTRIENT INITIATIVE
susceptible to infections such as
diarrhoea or measles. Topping
up vitamin A in children cuts
infant mortality by a dramatic
23 per cent.
Micronutrient Initiative produces
500 million high-density
vitamin capsules – a child requires
just two capsules a year.
Distributed through UNICEF
and integrated with their other
health and immunization projects,
these capsules are saving
lives of children in 70 countries.
Preventable brain damage
continues to affect millions of
people in Pakistan because the
salt they consume is not iodized.
Iodine deficiency can
significantly lower the IQ of
entire populations. Children
whose mothers lacked sufficient
iodine will have IQs up to
15 points lower than those
children who received adequate
iodine or who were born to
mothers with adequate iodine.
• FAR LEFT: Venkatesh
Mannar holds the five
billionth capsule of
vitamin A produced in
Canada for Micronutrient
Initiative. LEFT: Uma
Kumari Adhikari, a community
health worker in Bagashwari
village, Nepal,
with one of the capsules
that have helped save
more than two million
children’s lives through
Micronutrient Initiative’s
vitamin A programs in 70
developing countries.
Lack of iodine can also result
in cretinism, deafness or speech
defects. Serious deficiency in a
pregnant woman can lead to
miscarriage or stillbirth.
Since 2006, the Initiative has
helped increase the number of
Pakistani households consuming
iodized salt from 17 per
cent to 60 per cent, but Iodine
Deficiency Disorders continue