Via its foundation, Eurofins – a world leader in food, environment and pharma product testing – is committed alongside GRET and the Nourriplus project to fight against child malnutrition in Haiti.
As part of the Nutridev international programme, GRET and its partner the French National Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) are developing, testing and deploying sustainable, innovative strategies to prevent malnutrition. Since 1994, its actions contribute to improving vulnerable populations’ living conditions in a dozen countries, in particular for children under the age of two and their mothers. Present in Haiti since 2010, the Nutridev programme is fighting child malnutrition in the country through broader local development (access to drinking water, health-nutrition, agriculture) and food and nutrition security projects.
In 2017, as part of the Capagrinut project, GRET began working with a Haitian company and the Haitian Ministry of Health to develop Nourriplus, a fortified flour consumed in the form of a porridge for children aged 6 to 24 months. This complementary food, currently in the testing phase, is developed using local products marketed at prices that are affordable for the largest possible number of people. It meets children’s nutritional requirements and thereby contributes to preventing malnutrition.
Having initially supported a nutrition project in Madagascar in 2017 via the Nutri’zaza social business – created by GRET and four other partners – Eurofins, through its recent foundation, partnered with GRET again to support the Nourriplus project.
The main objective of this new partnership is to develop a strategy to promote this complementary food intended for the most vulnerable populations, to make the product more accessible for families and children in Port-au-Prince and the Grand Sud and Artibonite departments.
Eurofins CEO Doctor Gilles Martin explains: “The Eurofins Foundation is happy to support GRET’s Nourriplus project and its work on prevention of child malnutrition in Haiti. This support is consistent with our Group’s mission to promote better health for everyone.”
As the Nourriplus project is perfectly in line with the Eurofins foundations two priorities –nutrition and entrepreneurship – this partnership could ultimately be a significant advantage in terms of improving control processes and the product’s health quality by ensuring compliance with international standards.
