In April, 2021, Rural Health Care Initiative was the recipient of a grant from Vitamin Angels of a shipment of prenatal vitamins. These vitamins will be provided to the pregnant women in our service area of Tikonko Chiefdom over the coming year. The shipment included 945 bottles of 180 vitamins in each bottle, or 170,100 pills! These were shipped to Freetown, received by RHCI’s director Manley Jongopie and transported back to the RHCI headquarters in Tikonko.
Vitamin Angels, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Barbara, CA, partners with nonprofit organizations who provide health and nutrition services to underserved women and children, seeking initiatives that are complementary to and coordinated with existing national health services.
RHCI’s nutritionist, Umu Shour, is in charge of distribution of the vitamins through the 4 health units with which RHCI partners, for the women at the Birth Waiting Homes and the women who seek prenatal care at our mobile outreach clinics. Umu also provides nutrition education to all the pregnant and post-partum women in the Birth Waiting Homes, at the mobile outreach clinics, and to parents of young children.
This grant, from Vitamin Angels, significantly enhances RHCI’s ability to make a positive impact on the health of the Tikonko expecting mothers, by improving their nutritional status. We are grateful to Vitamin Angels, and all of their many corporate and individual supporters for this grant.
For more information on Vitamin Angels, go to https://www.vitaminangels.org/.