Nutrition

HKI's work in preventing malnutrition is a core component of the agency. In the 1970s, the agency shifted its focus from providing rehabilitation services to the blind to blindness prevention, with an emphasis on childhood blindness, the principal cause of which was, and remains, vitamin A deficiency (VAD).

Dr. Alfred Sommer of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with HKI, conducted studies in Indonesia on childhood blindness due to vitamin A deficiency. This groundbreaking research showed that vitamin A deficiency resulted not only in blindness, but, more importantly, in increased child morbidity and mortality. Providing vitamin A to children not only improves eyesight, but can also reduce childhood mortality by 23-34%. Later studies confirmed that vitamin A deficiency is also associated with increased maternal morbidity and mortality. As a result, HKI began assisting governments in the developing countries where we work to establish large-scale distribution of vitamin A. Millions of children and adults today continue to benefit from our worldwide vitamin A programs.

Our work with vitamin A opened the door to the life-saving role that other micronutrients can play, including iron, to prevent anemia, and zin, (to prevent and treat diarrhea, and to reduce the incidence and severity of pneumonia and malaria. Accordingly, HKI developed additional programs to encourage and to help people in developing countries to produce and consume foods rich in vitamins and minerals.

Links with major institutions working in the field of nutrition have strengthened the technical capacity of HKI's Country Offices and generated a significant body of scientific and technical literature. At the same time, HKI provides technical assistance and local capacity building to host governments and other counterparts.

Please use the navigation bar on the left to learn more about HKI's programs in Nutrition.