HERSHEY’S “Vivi” project in partnership with K’ORIGINS

Since December 2017, K’ORIGINS has signed a partnership with the American company HERSHEY’S for technical support related to the implementation of their “ViVi” project. This project is an initiative to combat anemia in the cocoa producing areas in which HERSHEY’S sources. This initiative is strongly supported by the State of Côte d’Ivoire at the highest level. Indeed, the State of Côte d’Ivoire, through its Vice Presidency, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the American company HERSHEY’S.

The Ivorian State is heavily involved in the implementation of this project via CONNAPE (National Council for Nutrition and Early Childhood). The objective of the project is to distribute the 1st year, sachets of “ViVi” to 25,000 children distributed in agricultural areas. The “ViVi” product will be produced in a factory based in San Pédro and set up by the American NGO PPB (Project Peanut Butter).

To date, several technical meetings have been held with the Vice President and CONNAPE in order to facilitate the obtaining of all the authorizations necessary for the importation of the machines, the production and the distribution of the product. Visits were made to the interior of the country in order to present the project to the various local actors (Ministries of Health and National Education) and also to collect data in order to validate the distribution scheme for the product in schools. .

Due to the COVID pandemic activities have been suspended but are expected to resume during the month of July.