Sanku-Project Healthy Children

Worldwide, 16,000 children die every day and 2 billion people suffer from preventable illness because their diets lack basic vitamins and minerals. Fortification (adding life-saving micronutrients to processed foods) is the most cost-effective nutrition intervention, but it has failed to reach the 6.5 billion people in developing countries who rely on small, often rural, mills for most of their food. We add micronutrients that are scientifically proven to improve health and vitality into the food Africans eat the most. How? 1. Sanku invented a dosifier, specifically designed for small, rural mills. Our dosifiers automate the process of adding a precise amount of critical nutrients into flour, thereby removing any risk of human error. We have installed close to 500 dosifiers at our 400 partner mills ensuring that thousands of families can access flour that is consistently fortified with iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamin B12, the micronutrients proven to be most critical for women and children within the first 1,000 days of life. 2. Sanku offsets the cost of nutrients by bulk buying empty pink flour bags, which we sell to our partner millers to pack their flour. The savings from each flour bag are enough to cover the entire cost of the miller’s nutrients and, at scale, they will cover our operating costs. This model allows our partner mills to fortify their flour at no added cost to themselves or their customers and ensures our long-term sustainability. 3. Sanku monitors our partner millers’ dosifier use remotely through a cellular link and visits mills if dosifiers are not in use or need repair, as well as to restock their nutrients. Thanks to remote monitoring every Sanku staff member can supervise approximately 100 mills, enabling us to implement a slim and efficient staffing model.