Half a million hungry children become blind every year due to Vitamin A deficiency. Blind forever. They are doomed to a life of darkness. Half of them die due to low immunity and recurrent infections. 200 million children worldwide suffer from Vitamin A deficiency and are at risk of losing their vision.

“We cannot provide nutritious food to everyone. But surely we can give the life-saving drops of vitamin A to malnourished children; to save them from the horror of permanent blindness, recurrent infections, and untimely deaths.”, says Dr. Radhika Batra, Co-founder, and President.

Everyday we meet parents doing everything they can to protect their children. What they often lack is not motivation or love, but access to the most basic nutrients.

“Vitamin A is essential for vision, immune function, and cellular communication. Because our bodies cannot produce it, it must come from diet,” says Dr Radhika Batra, Founder & President of Every Infant Matters. “Yet in the underserved communities we support, families rely heavily on staples like rice or cassava and rarely have access to Vitamin A-rich foods such as eggs, dairy, or orange-red vegetables.”

The consequences are heartbreaking. The World Health Organization identifies Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) as the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness. It begins with night blindness, progresses to xerophthalmia, and without intervention can result in corneal ulceration, keratomalacia, and irreversible vision loss.

But the impact extends beyond sight. Known as the anti-infective vitamin, Vitamin A helps maintain the mucosal barriers that protect children from disease. A child with VAD is far more vulnerable to measles, diarrhea, and respiratory infections. Research shows that Vitamin A supplementation can reduce mortality in children under five by around 24 percent.
This is why our work matters so deeply. At Every Infant Matters, we are not only preventing blindness, we are saving lives.