Zimbabwe

After traversing more than 8,700 miles across land and ocean, a 20-foot shipping container with 348 bags of textured soy protein (TSP) from Cedar Rapids, Iowa reached its southern Africa destination in Zimbabwe. Now it can fulfill its mission of offering 200,000 servings of high-protein food for orphans, pregnant women, people living with HIV and others in need.

Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) staff received the TSP a little more than two months after it left the Cargill Cedar Rapids facility thanks to a collaborative effort between Cargill and Rotary International with the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program. DAPP is using it to offer 200,000 servings of food to people in need.

Cargill donated the TSP while Rotary Clubs in Odebolt and Rockwell City, Iowa, as well as their Rotary District and Rotary International raised more than $6,000 for the transportation costs. The opportunity to share the protein-rich soy with people in need in Zimbabwe resulted from the support of WISHH.

DAPP is a member and co-founder of Humana People to People’s Federation. Their Zimbabwe Chairman Ib Hansen expressed appreciation for the soy that DAPP will couple with its “Total Control of the Epidemic” (TCE) education program to stem the spread of HIV/AIDs.

An estimated 24.6 percent of Zimbabwe’s adult populations are HIV infected. TCE’s health educators, called “Field Officers,” will help distribute the soy along with education materials on HIV/AIDS to community volunteers called “Passionates.” “The idea is that the Passionates are identified and trained in practical preparation of soy,” Hansen says. “Some of them go and start up soy restaurants. Others do soy promotion within the families.”