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Elanco and Heifer International have announced a new partnership to end hunger for 100,000 families across the globe.
"Today, one in six people globally are hungry," said Jeff Simmons, Elanco president and senior vice president of Eli Lilly and Company. "More than 25,000 people die each day from hunger and malnutrition.As the population grows toward nine billion at mid-century, the problem of hunger could grow staggeringly."
Working with Heifer International, small communities in emerging countries that would benefit from the gift of animals and training in animal husbandry and health, are identified.
Elanco and Heifer already are working in two communities, including a five-year project begun in 2009 in the Lampung province of Indonesia. The project will provide 2,100 families with cattle, ducks, plants, and trees. Their 2010 project focuses on the Copper Belt region of Zambia, and is intended to assist 6,210 families.
The third community, announced last week, is in the Hebel province of China, where more than 20 million families live on less than $1 a day. Elanco and Heifer International will offer gifts of livestock and training to 800 families.
"With our proven holistic model and Elanco's clear passion for farmers and animals, we are showing that we can do this," says Pierre Ferrari, Heifer's CEO. "We'd like to see this collaborative state of the art model adopted by others, and replicated across the globe."
Ferrari and Simmons emphasized that the partnership effort goes beyond the scope of a relief project. "The goal is to develop supply chains to link to market systems," Ferrari says. "Families who receive livestock pass on the gift of the first female offspring to another family. The psychological impact of going from recipients to donors cannot be overestimated."
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