Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley: End Hidden Hunger with Sanku
- Raised
- $5,000
- Goal
- $5,000
Two Dosifiers funded so far. Help us fund the next.
In September 2023, our club aired a programme on hidden hunger and the work of Sanku. We followed by raising $2,500 to fund a Dosifier, the machine that adds vitamins and minerals to flour as it's milled, for a mill in Tanzania. We were then able to match that amount to pay for a second, taking the total raised to $5,000: two Dosifiers, still fortifying flour today.
The Sanku we backed then has grown fast. Since our recording three years ago, Sanku's reach has risen from nearly 10 million people to around 70 million, across Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Over the same period the donor cost of reaching one person for a year has fallen from $0.55 to $0.09. Sanku now expects to reach 100 million people by 2028, a target it first set for 2030. The two Dosifiers we funded are part of that story.
Hidden hunger affects around three billion people: diets that fill stomachs but lack the vitamins and minerals a body needs to grow, learn and stay healthy. The cost is high and mostly hidden, holding back children's brain development, weakening immune systems, and harming mothers and babies. Fortification is one of the cheapest, most proven fixes there is, standard in wealthy countries for decades. Across much of Eastern Africa, the infrastructure to deliver it has never existed.
Sanku builds that infrastructure. It invented the Dosifier, which fortifies flour automatically at mills of every size, down to the smallest village mill. It makes the nutrients locally, at Eastern Africa's first premix factory. Sanku's founder, Felix Brooks-church, tells the story in the TED talk above.
Because Sanku built the whole system, donor money goes a long way. Reaching one person with vital nutrients for a year currently takes just $0.09, helping protect the lives of mothers and babies, and helping children grow and learn. And $2,500 covers the cost of a Dosifier for a mill, where it will fortify flour for thousands of people for years.
To support the work, make a donation above, by credit card, Google or Apple Pay, ACH, crypto and more. Gifts through this page are tax-deductible in the US.
For tax-deductible options from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, see the 'Donating from outside the United States' section on Sanku's donate page.