Every Infant Matters

While a resident in pediatrics, Radhika was horrified by infant mortality rates. In India, with an infant mortality of approximately 36.6 per 1,000 births, around 70% of fatalities are avoidable (1). She encountered a young child, suffering irreversible blindness which could have been prevented by two drops of Vitamin A. From this inspiration, Radhika founded Every Infant Matters to give all children in India a healthy start to life. In 2017 Radhika reached out to Vitamin Angels, an NGO in the USA, who agreed to provide her organisation with medical supplies free-of-charge. Every Infant Matters leveraged Radhika’s contacts in the healthcare industry in India to build a network of frontline healthcare providers, and supplies them with Vitamin A so they can provide preventative treatment to protect the eyesight of infants. Every Infant Matters has since expanded to 18 partners in total. 

At the One Young World Summit in 2018, she established partnerships with other attendees of the event. One such collaboration which has expanded her project is with Ekpenyong Effiok, from Startup Grind. Together, they have expanded her work to Nigeria, where there is an even higher infant mortality rate of approximately 119.9 per 1,000 births. Through partnerships with frontline healthcare providers, Every Infant Matters has facilitated treatment of 20,000 children to prevent blindness and around 15,000 for worms. To supplement this work, they have counselled approximately 32,000 families on better life-style choices to reduce non-communicable diseases.

Radhika is launching more international partnerships, notably in Kenya with Ekpenyong in August 2020, and Cameroon and Tanzania later in the year. Additionally, having met Sister Rose Pate, she launched a partnership in February 2020 providing 1,500 pregnant, disadvantaged women in North-East India. Every Infant Matters also supported young, dedicated doctors in providing free medical care in part of India impacted by the riots in Delhi at the beginning of 2020.

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EIM has shifted its focus to tackle the virus and its consequences by distributing masks and hand sanitiser to vulnerable communities in Delhi and at-risk demographics in remote regions around the world. It has sourced PPE for under-resourced health workers providing essential groceries to the recently-unemployed.

The team has used the funding to support three distinct initiatives. In India, EIM distributed PPE to health workers, sanitiser to homeless individuals, and groceries to unemployed migrant workers. In Kenya and Nigeria, they distributed sanitary napkins, face masks and soap.

• 1,000 masks and 1,000 bottles of sanitiser, and 1,200 bars of soap distributed
• 250 vulnerable families received grocery relief packs
• 1,300 sanitary napkins distributed in Kenya