The Princess Shall Become Queen: The Benefits of Vitamin A supplements
A simple gesture against malnutrition
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At the Ouango health centre, in Bangui, Marina Kokouelet, tenderly holds her daughter Princesse in her lap. The baby is 15 months old and ready to receive her second dose of Vitamin A, an essential contribution to her growth and health.
Nurse Rachele Kardoum, assuringly, dispense her the drops of this micronutrient, reminding Marina of its main benefits: optimal growth, reinforcement of her immune system, and good eyesight. But little Princesse, who doesn’t quite seem convinced, begins to cry as the drops fall in her open mouth, which Rachele struggles to keep wide open: “Don’t’ worry, Princesse, with this vitamin you shall grow and become a queen!”
The administration of Vitamin A is crucial in a country like the Central African Republic, where 37.9 per cent of children aged between zero and 50 months suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 5.5 per cent of children aged between six and 50 months are victims of global sharp malnutrition. Thanks to the support of the Canadian government (Global Affairs Canada), Vitamin A has been introduced to preventive and healing care hospitals and dispensaries around the country. It is also administered during child immunization campaigns against polio and measles. In 2024, slightly over one million children aged between 6 and 59 months, including 547,151 girls, received a supplementation in Vitamin A during the polio immunization campaign. This programme includes an anti-parasite treatment with albendazole, which eliminates intestinal worms and improves absorption of nutrients for children.
Behind this success lie the daily efforts of people like Thierry Kowawa, community outreach volunteer at the Ouango Health Centre. Since 2016, he has been crisscrossing the neighbourhoods of the capital’s seventh district which fall under his responsibility. Patiently, door by door, he visits his neighbours to make sure that all children benefit from the Vitamin A doses when they go for immunization.
There are 30 people in our team of community outreach workers. Our municipal district is very large, but each of us knows every corner of his sector by heart. I never leave a single child out.
Gisele Endjikelemo in chairperson of the Organization for Central African Women (Organisation des Femmes Centrafricaines, or OFCA) in Bangui’s fifth district. There, she coordinates a similar effort. It is a most demanding task, but the results are encouraging: more and more mothers are adhering to the programme and bring their children to the health centres.
We are a team of ten women. Since 2021 we’ve been carrying out a door-to-door awareness-raising. We are happy to say that the parents, especially the mothers, welcome our message and they bring their children to receive the Vitamin A.
Gisele and her colleague Solange Konziavo took part in a workshop for community leaders to further train them on the benefits of Vitamin A organized by UNICEF, made possible with funding from the Government of Canada. During one of the sessions, Solange Konziavo, also a member of the OFCA, shares an alarming fact:
Often, you find a nine or ten-year-old child and, judging by his or her appearance, you may think that they are five years younger. We are struggling to end malnutrition, so we begin by visiting pregnant women in our area to inform them about free healthcare services. We tell them that by taking advantage of the services, their babies shall grow without any problems.
In front of this reality, the volunteers go well beyond the simple distribution of Vitamin A. They also sensitize pregnant women, so that they may benefit from the free-of-charge health services that shall guarantee their babies a harmonious growth. For Gisele, this engagement is more than a mission, it is a cause to which she devotes all her energies. Her greatest satisfaction is to see the children smile, play and flourish, as living witnesses of the success brought about by this struggle against malnutrition.
The story of Princesse is one among the ones of thousands of children and families in the Central African Republic. Thanks to the mobilisation of community outreach workers and to the support of partners, every day a child is protected against the malnutrition’s devastating effects.
One single dose of Vitamin A can make all the difference. It can transform a vulnerable childhood into a strong and bright future of hope.
Today, maybe Princesse cries out as she receives her dose… But tomorrow she will grown strong and proud as a real queen!
