NutriGo project in China is the union of Dumex (biggest Baby Food Company in Danone), One Foundation, NPI Foundation and ILSI-FP China (a government nutrition body) and danone.communities to fight malutrition of babies in rural China through education and the distribution of a fortified complementary product.

Most partners of the NutriGo project gathered In December 2011 in Enshi district of the Hubei province in China to sign the main contracts and launch officially the pilot phase.

Enshi district is 4M people and 6 counties, 2 cities, 1/3 below poverty line - 1200 RMB per year (that is less than 1€ per day per person). Director Zhu of ILSI-FP, one of China's best nutrition experts explains to me how severe malnutrition has almost disappeared from China in 20 years; however, anemia and malnutrition are still prevalent; "Before there was no food; now there is food but people lack the education; we see complementary food as a fast solution to improve the nutrition but the real task will be to educate the people about good nutrition"

The signing ceremony of NutriGo Social Company (December 2011)

Marion is a project manager for Lemateki, a social business project, launched in Dakar, Senegal, by Danone. Communities and its partners. This project aims at giving a sustainable  access to a nutritional product fortified cereal-based local for disadvantaged children.

Marion joined the project Lemateki in September 2009 to conduct a nutritional survey of children in the suburbs of Dakar. During one year, Marion has been employed by the GRET and managed by IRD (Institut de recherche pour le Développement) to determine the nutritional status of the population. She has set foot in school on the outskirts of Dakar, organized the blood samples, measured and weighed 600 children, managed a large team of 20 investigators at home and various agents, participated in data analysis and scientific publication.

After this busy year of meetings and discoveries, Marion starts a VIE experience (Volunteer for International Experience) with danone.communities, still on the Lemateki project. Then, her mission is to implement the project on marketing issues and nutrition education and hygiene questions.

The next day, this experience is repeated in a village, where we are this time accompanied by Qayium, sales manager at Grameen Danone Foods Ltd, in charge of the Shokti Ladies’ network. Here, no children in school, just moms and their children, who listen attentively to the recommendations of the presentation. Some win a pouch for answering a question correctly. The surprise is mutual, again, as during our visit to the milk collection points, where local farmers come to sell their raw material, for a regular salary. The calm reigns over the villages, where a goat sometime bleats, and where children's voices rise slowly. From the top of Gokul Medh, a Buddhist monument, 10km from Bogra, guided by a boy of barely 10 years, I hear CNG (for "compressed natural gas") that backfire, some klaxons, and the change of scene is total.

Isabelle Sultan, project manager on danone.communities projects in Senegal, is gving us some news about the last born of them : Lemateki.

The project Lemateki (Senegal) is on standby to start a pilot phase in late March to June 2011. This phase will help evaluate the attractiveness of the model and refine the proposed business plan. This step will give the green light for social investors to gather around Enda Graf Sahel and danone.communities, and to give birth tomorrow, the Lemateki social business.

What is the ambition of this project? By 2018, it aims to:

-          Valorize 1180 tons of value to local raw materials (cereals, pulses, sugar and milk)

-          Create a sixty jobs

-          and promote women's entrepreneurship through distribution. Some facts :

o   66% of urban schools in Senegal will be concerned

o   through 1250 micro-entrepreneurs – who will take an additional income with benefits –

o   The product is a fortified snack sold 50Fcfa (7.5 euro cents)

o   that would be made ​​available to a potential of 535 000 children 6 to 12 years.

The economic equation will be tight. And hybrid forms of financing play a big role in initiating the project.