FAME - preventing childhood blindness

At the end of February 2020 our unique 3-year interventional research programme, run in collaboration with the Canossian Catholic Sisters in Motihari, came to its completion.

FAME stands for Food, vitamin A supplements, Measles vaccination and Education. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate that all arms of this protocol are essential in order to prevent childhood blindness from Vitamin A deficiency. The vast majority of rural children in Bihar are at risk.

300 children from Bamsan village were enrolled in the project.

The sisters’ team including Ama (pictured above, right) were responsible for the daily cooking and feeding of the children as well as educating the whole village about eye and general health.

Team member Dheeraj is seen explaining to the children why it is important for them to eat food rich in Vitamin A and protein.

The Education part of FAME was a huge success. Even before the feeding programme stopped, the Basman villages had discussed how they could pool their resources and grow the food so necessary for the youngest children. Only a few people owned land - so they donated it for the use of all.
Sadly the 2020 Bihar floods wiped out the crop…but the resilient Basman villagers simply replanted!