More than 3,000 children in Burundi now have access to safe milk as part of their school meals programme, provided through a partnership between the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and Kerry Group.
‘Project Amata’ has so far purchased and distributed more than 200t of milk, as it works to improve food security and nutrition in the country, where 70% of people live below the poverty line and more than half the population are suffering from chronic malnutrition.
Each child in participating schools receives a portion of milk twice a week during their school meals, which, according to Kerry Group, will often be the only source of animal protein they receive.
By strengthening the milk value chain in the Gitega province, the project hopes to improve food security and nutrition for children, who are often most affected by a lack of regular, nutritious foods.
This makes them particularly vulnerable to infections and other conditions and can affect their performance in school.
In addition to the school meals programme, Project Amata has also been sharing expertise on modern dairy farming and processing techniques, and has trained more than 200 Burundian farmers.
Kerry Group stated that its dairy experts have been engaging in knowledge transfers across a number of areas including animal nutrition, artificial insemination (AI) and calf rearing to help local farmers improve their milk quality and improve food security.
Gerry Behan, global president and CEO of taste and nutrition at Kerry Group commended the impact of the programme to date.
“Project Amata has been an extremely worthwhile endeavour and we are proud to help deliver the excellent progress to date that has occurred in spite of the challenges of the global pandemic on the project’s organising efforts”.
“Kerry is pleased and proud to work with the World Food Programme to partner in another excellent project, and we look forward to seeing even more impact from Project Amata,” he said.
The programme is set to continue into 2023 and will now focus on providing further training within the east African country, the establishment of a farmer leader group and educational programmes on the nutritional value of milk and dairy.
Project Amata was established following the success of a previous joint initiative between the WFP and Kerry Group – Project Leche – which worked with Honduran farmers, to help them create a more sustainable and safer milk supply.