Well yes, if your general goal is to reduce suffering and to pursue (in the words of the vegan credo) "a way of living which seeks to exclude -- as far as is possible and practical -- all forms of exploitation and cruelty to animals" then such a way of life should include -- for instance -- a concern for human beings suffering and dying from very preventable diseases in far away places.

Now, one can say:

"Aha, but look, the vegan credo only says 'exclude' from your life all forms of exploitation and cruelty -- and I'm not actively harming African children. At most, maybe I buy product x which may cause suffering somewhere down the line for somebody else, but no one's perfect, and the ills of capitalism are far-reaching and unobvious, and at least I'm contributing toward someone's having a job" etc.

All of this may be true enough. It's also true enough that you can cobble enough facts together from the world to basically justify to yourself almost behavior you wish -- all it takes is effort.

By my lights, the heart of an ethical position like the vegan society's is a stance against exploitation, cruelty, and, yes, suffering. To do all you can to prevent suffering, you ought to not harm and do help if you can. I admit, again, one can plausibly deny this, and interpret the vegan credo in such a way as to mean only "do no harm" but I don't think this interpretation is that well motivated...I think it's obvious why one would want to interpret the credo in such way. It's because helping when you can is hard. It probably does mean not buying that second car, or that big house, or that huge TV. It probably does mean giving something like ten, or twenty percent of your yearly income to charity. If you don't have much money to begin with, it's especially hard.

The upside is you get to save someone's life.