Vodafone to Help Sanku (Project Healthy Children) Reach 100 Million People Across Africa in the Fight Against Malnutrition
June 06 2018 - 3:05AM
Vodafone today announced it is working with Sanku (Project
Healthy Children) to equip small flour
mills across Africa with Internet of Things (IoT)
services to provide nutritious fortified flour to
millions of people.
Two billion people around the world suffer from
micronutrient malnutrition. Fortified flour battles against
hidden hunger in developing countries, which
includes pervasive issues of micronutrient
deficiencies such as birth defects, child development issues,
and blindness.
Sanku is bringing real-time, data-driven insights
to 3,000 small scale flour mills over the next
four years, with Vodafone’s global IoT SIM and USB
Connect technology helping to significantly scale the programme and
improve its efficiency. Sanku has
created a first-of-its-kind technology - the
‘dosifier’ - which enables small African flour
mills in rural areas to fortify flour with key nutrients during the
milling process, in a way that is sustainable and
cost-effective.
In the past, one Sanku
worker could only monitor 25 mills, which would
fortify flour to feed 125,000 people. Vodafone’s IoT SIM
now connects the same worker to 100 mills, which will
fortify flour for 500,000 people. The Sanku worker receives
alerts remotely and in real-time when the mills run out of
fortified flour or require maintenance.
“Our dosifier has been incredibly successful to date, bringing
fortified flour to communities in need across the developing
world,” said Sanku Co-founder and CEO Felix Brooks-church.
“Vodafone’s IoT technology gives us the ability to significantly
optimise and scale operations. Sanku currently helps
provide fortified flour to around one million people
and, with this new IoT connection, we are on a path to
reach 100 million people by 2025.”
As a result of the partnership with Vodafone:
- Sanku dosifiers now have reliable,
secure connectivity with Vodafone’s IoT SIM. Vodafone’s
in-country roaming reaches the most remote areas, allowing access
to up-to-the-minute information on maintenance,
power supply and machine tracking via GPS;
- Sanku can accurately monitor fortification levels to
ensure communities are receiving the benefits of fortified flour;
and
- Vodafone’s M-Pesa mobile money service is being used
to enable millers to securely make and receive payments
on their smartphones, further improving Sanku ability to
scale.
Vodafone
and Sanku are rolling out Vodafone’s
global IoT SIM and USB Connect technology to local flour
mills in Tanzania and Rwanda, and will continue to implement
the technology across Eastern and Southern Africa.
Vodafone Group Enterprise Chief Executive Brian Humphries, said:
“Our project with Sanku is a perfect example of how the
Internet of Things can improve people’s lives and help make a
difference in even the poorest of communities. Connected
technology gives Sanku the ability to significantly
enhance efficiencies, enabling fortified flour to be delivered to
more communities, playing an important role in helping to end
malnutrition.”
For further
information:
Vodafone
Group |
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Media Relations |
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www.vodafone.com/media/contact |
Telephone: +44
(0) 7919 990 230 |
About VodafoneVodafone Group is one of the
world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range
of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed
communications. Vodafone Group has mobile operations in 25
countries, partners with mobile networks in 46 more, and fixed
broadband operations in 18 markets. As of 31 March 2018, Vodafone
Group had 535.8 million mobile customers and 19.7 million fixed
broadband customers, including India and all of the customers in
Vodafone’s joint ventures and associates. For more information,
please visit: www.vodafone.com.
About Sanku (Project Healthy Children)
(www.sanku.com)Sanku (Project Healthy Children) a
not-for-profit social enterprise that has designed a model that
explicitly overcomes the challenges of small-scale fortification,
with a goal to reach 100 million people by 2025. Sanku is
fundamentally changing nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa through
their market-based model, reaching vulnerable populations by
equipping and incentivizing small-scale maize millers to fortify
their flour, the most commonly consumed staple food. Currently,
Sanku has projects in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, and
Mozambique.
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