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Philanthropod
Fortifying flour and harnessing hope
Season 10, Ep. 1
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How much do you know about “hidden hunger”?
Did you know that two billion people suffer from this silent crisis globally, leading to 8000 preventable child deaths daily?
Nearly twenty years ago, Felix Brooks-Church had his first encounter with hidden hunger when he was working with children in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. At its core, hidden hunger is a global malnutrition crisis. Whilst many people across the world might have access to flour or a starchy staple to fill their bellies, these staples often lack the vital nutrients needed to build strong immune systems, to have healthy pregnancies and avoid other serious health issues.
Today, Felix is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sanku, an East African social-enterprise that enables local flour mills to produce fortified flour (or flour that has been “fortified” with lifesaving nutrients). While counties in the Global North already enjoy fortified foods like cereal, milk, and salt, two billion people worldwide lack this basic human right.
As at 2024, Sanku is now working with 1200 millers across Tanzania and Kenya in the hardest to reach places. With smart “Dosifier” machines that precisely add essential nutrients into flour, and through bulk manufacturing that keeps nutrient premix costs low, Sanku makes it possible for communities to access lifesaving nutrients without any added cost. Sanku reaches approximately 10 million people with healthier meals each day.
To learn more, tune in to hear #Philanthropod host, Anubha Rawat, in conversation with Felix. Anubha and Felix chat about global malnutrition, life-saving technology that provides data in real time, economies of scale, behavioural change and the importance of aligning development interventions to Government policy agendas. They also discuss what “sustainability” means for Sanku as it continues to scale - navigating a balance between philanthropic support and a market based revenue stream.
For their pioneering work, Sanku has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, a GiveWell Standout Charity, and won the Zayed Sustainability Prize, the Elevate Prize, the Lipman Family Prize, as well as the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. Sanku’s award-winning Dosifier technology was also selected by Time Magazine as an Invention of the Year in 2019.
To find out more about Sanku, visit their website https://projecthealthychildren.org/
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2. “Africans creating African solutions”: Disability inclusion with The Action Foundation
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3. Scaling for Impact: Safeena Husain's Journey to Educate Girls Across India
28:14||Season 9, Ep. 3In this episode of Philanthropod, host Anubha Rawat sits down with Safeena Husain, the visionary founder of Educate Girls.Safeena shares her remarkable journey, from growing up in Delhi under challenging circumstances, which interrupted her education, to a life-changing moment when a close family friend advocated for her schooling. After spending 10 years abroad, Safeena returned to India to start Educate Girls—a non-profit organisation dedicated to ensuring that every girl in the most remote parts of India is enrolled in school and learns well. Anubha, who also grew up in India, brings a deep understanding of the cultural barriers girls face in accessing education, making this a compelling conversation. They explore the innovative community mobilisation strategies behind Educate Girls' success, including the creation of a network of 20,000 local gender champions. These volunteers tirelessly advocate for girls' rights and work to ensure that every girl has the opportunity to attend school.Safeena reflects on the early lessons and hard-earned insights that have helped scale the organisation. They discuss the critical role of engaging boys and men in the mission, breaking down biases, and fostering a community-driven model that emphasises ownership and responsibility.With a clear vision of success and a model centered on community ownership, Safeena explains how philanthropy has been the 'fuel' driving the organisation forward. She highlights the importance of unrestricted, flexible capital, which has been instrumental in enabling large-scale impact. Now, Educate Girls is looking to the future with an ambitious vision: the "10x10" initiative—educating 10 million girls over the next 10 years. With strong community support and backing from supporters, Safeena and her team are on track to make this vision a reality.To learn more about Educate Girls, visit: www.educategirls.ngo/
2. High-love, low-cost health care
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1. Unearthing and investing in African change-makers
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3. Nourishing Rwanda: the story of Solid’Africa
28:51||Season 8, Ep. 3When Isabelle Kamariza founded Solid’Africa in 2010, she started with a simple yet powerful vision: to ensure that no patient in a Rwandan public hospital suffered from a lack of nutrition. Nutrition insecurity is a widespread problem in Rwanda, due to high-cost food, limited access to nutritious meals, and lack of awareness. Since 2010, Solid’Africa has now served over 5 million patient-tailored meals to almost 600,000 patients, and this number is rapidly growing. They now operate out of an industrial kitchen capable of cooking 10,000 meals a day and operate two farms to supply fresh produce. In particular, Solid’Africa addresses nutrition insecurity by recognising the crucial interplay between household income, nutrition awareness, and the availability and accessibility of healthy food. They have three main programs: the Nutrition Access Program, the Nutrition Education Program and the Sustainable Agriculture for Economic Empowerment.Recognising her pioneering efforts, Isabelle Kamariza has received several awards including the Young African Women Leaders Forum Award by Michelle Obama, the Forbes Women Africa Social Impact Award and the Elevate Prize.In this exciting episode, join Philanthropod’s host, Anubha Rawat, in conversation with Isabelle Kamariza, President and Founder of Solid’Africa. From exploring the critical role of initial backers and funders for Isabelle’s vision, to discussing the importance of cost and energy efficiency in NFP operations, to understanding Solid’Africa’s commercial arm, this is not an episode to be missed. With upcoming plans for a culinary and nutrition school, and further aspirations for expanding operations alongside national ministries, Solid’Africa is one to watch. To learn more about Solid Africa follow the link: https://www.solidafrica.org/
2. Pharma for Good: Inside Medicines Development for Global Health
37:47||Season 8, Ep. 2Is there such a thing as a not-for-profit pharmaceutical company? What are “neglected tropical diseases”?How can you address global health inequities in access to medicines?These are just a few of the many incisive questions that our latest episode of Philanthropod explores. In episode 2 of Season 8 meet Mark Sullivan AO, Managing Director and Founder of Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH). MDGH is an independent not-for-profit company dedicated to the development of medicines for neglected diseases that primarily affect people living in poverty.The majority of new medicines are developed for diseases that are prevalent in high-income countries as the potential returns on an approved medicine offset the high cost and risk of development. This model disadvantages the world’s poorest populations – according to the WHO, an estimated two billion people do not have access to even the most basic of essential medicines. Responding to this deep inequity in global health, in 2005, Mark founded MDGH. Since its inception MDGH has demonstrated that it is possible to assemble the resources, collaborators and financing required to develop and register new medicines for infectious diseases in a not-for-profit company. In fact, in 2018, MDGH became the first solo not-for-profit company to achieve FDA approval for a novel medicine when they registered moxidectin, the first new treatment for river blindness (onchocerciasis) in 20 years.Join Philanthropod’s host, Anubha Rawat, in conversation with Mark as they discuss Mark’s pioneering journey throughout the pharmaceutical industry, the importance of working with local NGOs, communities and health providers to distribute medicines, and navigating critical regulatory systems with major global health bodies such as the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and WHO (World Health Organisation).To learn more about MDGH follow the link: https://www.medicinesdevelopment.com/
1. Uniting sport and gender justice in PNG
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3. Moving out of ultra-poverty in rural Uganda
31:14||Season 7, Ep. 3In the final episode of Philanthropod for 2023 you’ll meet Shawn Cheung, founder and CEO of Raising The Village. Launched in 2015, Raising the Village is a charity focused on building sustainable pathways out of ultra-poverty for last-mile communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on Uganda.By applying advanced data analytics to agriculture and community participation, Raising The Village’s primary goal is to increase household income and earnings from as little as $0.75/day to > $2/day within 24 months by driving agricultural incomes, fueling new income-generating opportunities, creating an enabling environment for communities to participate, and ensuring the sustainability of impact and progress. The program also strives to both identify and remove the daily barriers holding community members back and centers the idea that basic needs and services must always be addressed first before a development program can flourish. By the end of this year, Raising The Village will cross the milestone of 1 million lives impacted since its founding, with an ambitious goal of reaching 1 million each year by 2027.Join Philanthropod’s host, Anubha Rawat, in conversation with Shawn as they discuss the importance of holistic and multidimensional approaches to development. In the case of Raising the Village: leadership, participation and buy-in from all levels of community is critical. From leveraging federal data and resources, to working with district governments to understand where the most critical need is, to pioneering a community-led model where clusters of villages can work together and identify their own specific and contextualized needs. Tune in to understand why Shawn was recognised in Canada's Top 40 under 40 as an innovator who is truly changing how things are done.To learn more about Raising the Village follow the link: https://raisingthevillage.org/