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Vitamin A deficiency and childhood blindness

Boy playing with toys
Across some of the poorest communities vitamin A deficiency is rife © Fabienne Fossez / Sightsavers 

To celebrate this year's World Sight Day, 12 October, celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay are helping us to raise awareness of avoidable blindnesss.

The chefs have thought up some unique recipes rich in vitamin A - a vital ingredient for healthy eyes and a healthy immune system - to raise awareness of the fact that thousands of children in the poorest countries in the world are going blind due to lack of the vitamin.

Vitamin A can be found in foods such as carrots, sweet potatoes, liver, fish, spinach, butternut squash and palm oil.

Shocking information
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says: "We take foods high in vitamin A pretty much for granted here in the UK and I was shocked to learn that huge numbers of children were blinded by a lack of it around the world.

"Sightsavers is trying to eliminate all types of avoidable blindness, including blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency, by facilitating the distribution of vitamin A capsules and raising health and nutrition awareness in affected communities. Around the world today no child should lose their sight unnecessarily."

Antony Worrall Thompson adds: "Over 100 million children are affected by vitamin A deficiency, it is one of the major causes of childhood blindness in poor communities. Children who are blind are at a greater risk of social exclusion, missing out on an education and spiralling further into poverty. However, there is some room for optimism. If the right steps are taken, vitamin A deficiency can be eliminated by 2010."

Sightsavers is working with local organisations in over 30 countries across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to prevent and cure blindness and to ensure that people who are blind enjoy equal rights and opportunities. With local partners, we are working to faciltate the distribution of vitamin A capsules and provide health and nutrition training.

Find out more about the links between vitamin A and childhood blindness or submit a vitamin A rich recipe


Spinach What have our celebrity chefs rustled up?

Chefs Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Worrall Thompson and Vicky Bhogal have provided us with several mouth watering recipes incorporating foods rich in Vitamin A, such as sweet potatoes, spinach and mackerel 

Sweet potatoes Submit your own recipe

Are you a dab hand in the kitchen? If so, why not take up the challenge and submit your own, Vitamin A rich recipe.  

 

Statistics

Some facts about childhood blindness:

  • There are 1.4 million children who are blind in the world
  • 90% of children who are blind don't go to school
  • Within two years of becoming blind, 50% of children die

Related Information

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