Meet Veer.
Veer is a child who calls Maharashtra in India his home, alongside nearly 127 million people.
Veer has an arterial septal defect (ASD), which means that he has a hole in his heart’s upper chamber. Long before Veer received an answer to his symptoms, his mom knew that something was wrong.
Through UNICEF and on-the-ground volunteers, Veer’s family was able to receive options for how to proceed with his condition and ultimately move forward with surgery.
Since then, Veer has recovered and is living the active life every child deserves.
One in five of the world’s children lives in India. According to the World Health Organization, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) accounted for 66% of all deaths in India as of 2019 —22% of which were premature.1 It’s estimated that around 2.1 billion children globally are at the heart of this crisis: children like Veer.
What are non-communicable diseases?
“NCDs, also known as chronic diseases, are non-transmissible diseases of often long duration.” Examples of the most common NCDs include heart disease, sickle cell disease, diabetes and chronic lung disease.
However, in resource-limited settings in low- and middle-income countries, children are disproportionately affected by NCDs, as healthcare options are more limited when working to help protect the most vulnerable people.
Resource-limited settings may be overwhelmed by limited access to healthy foods, high levels of pollution, and limited opportunities for active lifestyles. As such, when children are diagnosed with NCDs in these environments, it can have substantial, lifelong implications for children and their families, including disabilities, chronic pain and reduced quality of life.2
How is UNICEF helping?
“70% of the preventable adult deaths from NCDs are linked to risk factors that start in adolescence, providing a key opportunity for prevention.”3
So, now that organizations like UNICEF have identified these gaps, what can be done to help?
First, the organization is accelerating its efforts in resource-limited communities like Veer’s in India; the speed aligns with its “whole of society” approach. The goal is to provide crucial health care now—and work to lay the foundation for a future that emphasizes awareness, prevention, management, and long-term support through primary health care and community-based services.2
In India specifically, UNICEF is on the ground, working with government agencies and local partners to manage NCDs in children and adolescents. The goal is to enhance the support that local health care workers can provide to their patients diagnosed with the NCDs that are common in resource-limited settings in India.
How we’re supporting efforts to help vulnerable communities
One of our company goals is to improve access to quality health care for 30 million people in resource-limited settings annually by 2030. Thus, supporting this work through a donation to UNICEF USA just makes sense.
Since 2022, we’ve donated $20.9 million to UNICEF USA to support charitable work to help strengthen health systems in resource-limited areas in low- and middle-income countries. These donations have specifically allowed UNICEF to implement programs across Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Nepal, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.
For example, with the support of a donation to UNICEF USA from Lilly, progress has been made with charitable NCD efforts, specifically allowing for support of programs that have screened hundreds of children for NCDs, trained more than 2,000 health workers, and reached more than 350,000 families across resource-limited settings in India.
In 2024, several Lilly employees traveled to witness firsthand the changes that are being made on a local level by UNICEF staff and local volunteers. That’s when the Lilly team met Veer and other kids like him alongside the people who are committed to providing help locally.
Coming back from this trip, Cynthia Cardona, Vice President of Social Impact at Lilly, said “Every day, we go beyond Lilly medicines and beyond the company’s walls to create a lasting change in resource-limited communities and low- to middle-income countries. Being part of the UNICEF visit to India was a clear reminder of why this work matters and how it connects to Lilly’s purpose of making life better for people around the world. I am proud to see that Lilly’s support to UNICEF USA is contributing to charitable efforts to strengthen local health care systems and providing an opportunity for better futures for children living with NCDs.”
Our contributions have ultimately been used by UNICEF USA to support efforts that have helped reach over 7.5 million children worldwide since 2022.
UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service.
References
1 Noncommunicable Diseases Data Portal. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/teams/ncds/surveillance/dataportal
2 Shafique, F., Cardona, C. "Opinion: Healthy starts for lifelong health." DEVEX. Published February 13, 2025. Accessed June 6, 2025. https://www.devex.com/news/sponsored/opinion-healthy-starts-for-lifelong-health-109348
3 "Lilly, UNICEF expand support to help millions of young people at risk of noncommunicable diseases." Lilly. Published May 29, 2024. Accessed June 6, 2025. https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-unicef-expand-support-help-millions-young-people-risk