Help De-worm and Nourish Haiti's Children

One of the most common afflictions affecting Haitians are intestinal worms that are acquired because of a lack of clean water and proper sanitation systems. Children are especially vulnerable to this. Some people may be familiar with seeing small children from developing countries with bloated bellies on their televisions. This is caused by intestinal worms that can take up to 20% of a child’s daily nutritional intake in their already malnourished diet. These worms also give children painful abdominal cramps and diarrhea that keep them at home and away from school. They don’t receive their proper education and perpetuates a cycle of poverty.

International Action has worked vigorously to fight this pattern and aid communities with both infected adults and children.

One tablet of Albendazole will rid the body of intestinal worms and prevent infection for up to six months. Together with our ongoing and expanding water sanitation projects, this medicine helps to ensure a healthy, productive, and thriving Haiti. Over the past five years we have been able to distribute almost 1.5 million tablets to Haitians that has contributed to countless of adults being able to go back to work and children going to school. In 2013 alone we were able to provide close to 300,000 pills to over a dozen schools, public facilities, and organizations.

In the last couple of months we have worked to distribute nearly 8,000 tablets to two local schools and various Haitian groups, such as the Haitian Technicians Union, that have realized the importance of ridding intestinal worms. Earlier this year we gave tablets to GOALS Haiti, a youth soccer program for kids in Haiti, who were able to deworm 401 children in Leogane. We also donated 1,000 albendazole pills to Mission Starfish, a group focused on the children of Haiti, who were struggling to find the much-needed medicine. One volunteer, Judith Knickerbocker, expressed her relief in an email:

“We ran out of medicines at our clinic…So many people needed de-worming medicine and I had none…. I found International Action and they were able to supply me with the medicine we needed. Thanks to them I was able to give everyone the medicine…!”

These cost-efficient pills are able to make a huge impact on peoples’ lives. We thank you for your continued support.