Why We Support Evidence Action’s Deworm the World
JOURNAL

Why We Support Evidence Action’s Deworm the World

At Erin Morning & Co., we are committed to making a big difference. That’s why we pledge 10% of our profits to the world’s most impactful charities—those rigorously vetted by leading organizations in effective altruism. Among them, Evidence Action’s Deworm the World, recommended as a top charity by Giving What We Can, The Life You Can Save, and GiveWell, stands out as a game-changer in global education. (For others, check our Give Back page.)

We believe in the transformative power of education. But traditional interventions like providing textbooks or training teachers have only shown limited benefits. So what has been shown to produce profound, lifelong improvements in education and income?

Deworming medicine!

Really? Yes, really! The impact is astonishing:

  • More years in school: Children who received deworming treatment stayed enrolled longer.1
  • Especially for girls: Girls were 25% more likely to attend secondary school, cutting the gender gap in half.1
  • Higher incomes: 20 years later, treated children earned 14% more than their peers, on average.2

How does a simple medicine make such a big difference? Parasitic worm infections leave children too sick to attend school. One study found that treated children attended 25% more school days than untreated cohorts.3

Cost-Effectiveness Beyond Compare

Over 868 million children are at risk of parasitic worm infections, which threaten their health, education, and productivity.4 With governments covering overhead costs, only funding for the medicine itself is needed  just $0.46 to treat a child in Kenya six months, and in India just half that much!5

It's rare to find a program for which such low costs can have such enormous impacts. By shopping with us, you're funding one of the most effective ways to improve lives on a global scale.

We're deeply grateful to you for making it possible. Together, we are improving education, ending poverty, and empowering children to thrive.

Proven, lasting change starts with you—one child at a time.

 

SHOP NOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

 

[1] Sarah Baird, Joan Hamory Hicks, Michael Kremer, Edward Miguel, "Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment Get access Arrow", The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 131, Issue 4, November 2016, Pages 1637–1680, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjw022.
[2] Joan Hamory, Edward Miguel, Michael Walker, and Sarah Baird, "Twenty-year economic impacts of deworming", PNAS, March 31, 2021, 118 (14) e2023185118, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023185118.
[3] Miguel, Edward, and Michael Kremer. 2004. "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities." Econometrica 72 (1): 159-217, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3598853.
[4] Evidence Action, "Deworm the World", https://www.evidenceaction.org/programs/deworm-the-world.
[5] GiveWell, "Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative – August 2022 version", November 2021, updated April 2023, https://www.givewell.org/charities/deworm-world-initiative/August-2022-version.
Previous
Why Effective Altruism Matters to Us (And Why It Could Matter to You Too)
Next
Why We Support The Humane League