Heifer International Receives $25.5M Grant to Expand Its East Africa Dairy Development Program - 'Milk for Health and Wealth'

More than 100,000 farmers to benefit in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Jan 16, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Heifer International received a $25.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project and assist more than 136,000 farm families in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

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Heifer International will work with and invite new investors from the public and private sectors to raise an additional $16 million over five years to fully fund phase two of the regional project, which is designed to eradicate poverty in these developing countries. The project enables smallholder farmers to profitably participate in the growing dairy industry, improving nutrition and increasing farmer income and access to markets.

In 2008, the EADD program was implemented in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda with an initial grant from the Gates Foundation of $51.3 million. This new grant will expand the EADD program to Tanzania while scaling up the impact of work in Kenya and Uganda.

The goal of phase one was to reach one million people, approximately 179,000 families, who were living on small 1-5 acre farms and to double dairy-derived income for these families by 2017. Since 2009, EADD partner farmers have produced 297 million liters of milk with more than $131 million in sales.

The project design will pay specific attention to activities in the dairy chain, from production systems at the household level to the hubs to processors and policy makers, all the while working to ensure that the gains of the project are not just economic but social as well.

Heifer International and its partners in the EADD project—TechnoServe, International Livestock Research Institute, African Breeders Services and World Agroforestry Centre—continue their efforts to make connections between a variety of stakeholders, including governments, businesses and farmers.

About Heifer International:
Heifer International's mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. For more information, visit www.heifer.org, read our blog, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or call 1-800-696-1918.

SOURCE Heifer International

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