WISHH Works With Africare, Cargill To Nourish West African Children
St. Louis…ASA Leader Letter... October 8, 2009… Children and their mothers in the West African country of Burkina Faso are again getting better nutrition this fall from foods made with U.S. defatted soy flour. The American Soybean Association’s World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) program has been working with Africare and Cargill in obtaining the product, as well as making sure it is well used in local African diets.
WISHH efforts with Africare and Cargill have contributed to women and children receiving foods made with the defatted soy flour provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Recipients report improved weight gain and energy levels. (Africare photo)
According to Africare, "The soy flour offers a very important assistance to malnourished children and their mothers, as well as to those infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. The soy flour mixed with other food products provides a nourishing, high caloric and satisfying meal for Africare Burkina's beneficiaries."
WISHH has also worked closely with the federal agencies that administer U.S. foreign assistance. As a result, the U.S. government purchased the first shipment of U.S. defatted soy flour under the Food for Peace Program in 2006. Africare had requested 150 metric tons for its project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in a rural province of Burkina Faso. WISHH farmer leaders witnessed the historic shipment as it was bagged at the Cargill Cedar Rapids facility to provide five million servings of soy protein to women and children in Burkina Faso.
Africare continued to request the product. As a result, this summer USAID purchased 70 metric tons. The product arrived at the West African port of Lome in September. Africare plans to have it all distributed by December.
WISHH also sent Karl Weingartner of the National Soybean Research Laboratory to instruct Africare/Burkina's project workers on the product use. Now these methods are replicated in health centers for malnourished children and their mothers, as well as in the homes of those infected with HIV/AIDS within Africare/Burkina's project zone.
