Charities
Clean drinking water
We extract water from milk to produce our milk powders. Consumers then put water back into our products. However, clean drinking water cannot be taken for granted in Africa, where many of our consumers live. That is why we fund drinking water projects in Africa, under the motto 'a litre for a litre'.
Thanks to the Milky Gari project in cooperation with our customer Hoogwegt, children in Liberia start the school day with a nutritious meal. Milky Gari is a nutritious porridge that contains Vreugdenhil's enriched milk powders.
Topics in clean drinking water

Well in Ethiopia
Clean drinking water
Well in Ethiopia

We have funded a well in the Ethiopian village of Guramba Bata since 2015. The well is about 130 meters deep. Over the next 20 years (the technical life of infrastructure), we will produce at least 525 million litres of clean drinking water.
The water is led to four consumption points, among which a school and a health centre. A group of people have been trained to maintain the drinking water infrastructure. Coaches have also been trained to encourage people to change their hygiene behaviour. In 2020, we will explore the possibilities for new clean drinking water projects in Africa.

Empowering vulnerable women in Congo
Empowering vulnerable women in Congo

In Congo we support a project that focuses on empowering vulnerable women. For example, by improving socio-economic conditions and combating sexual exploitation and human rights violations. Because of warfare, women regularly become the victims of violence. This can lead to women being expelled from their communities.
Moreover, the Ebola outbreak is also a major problem in the region. Together with local NGOs, Vreugdenhil makes a financial contribution to improving the position of women. This gives them the opportunity to follow training courses to be able to live independently in peace. This project has reached 898 people, of whom 665 women and 233 men.

Milky Gari in Liberia
Milky Gari in Liberia

Having children in Liberia start their school day with a nutritious meal is the goal of the Milky Gari project that we launched in 2018 in partnership with our customer Hoogwegt. Because many children in Liberia are malnourished and do not go to school. Milky Gari is a nutritious porridge based on our enriched milk powder, cassava and soya flour. International relief and recovery organisation ZOA provides this porridge to schoolgoing children. This is an additional reason for many parents to send their children to school. Local farmers supply the cassava and receive training in increasing their yields. Local companies process the cassava into porridge (Gari). This generates additional income, which in turn contributes to the opportunity to buy school uniforms and books for schoolgoing children. This local approach makes ZOA unique in the region. In 2018, we started offering Milky Gari and since 2019 we have been supplying seven schools. In total we have reached 1956 children. Our ambition is to continue the project at these schools in 2020.
Ambitions, goals and results
4000
Ethiopians given clean drinking water
... from the well in a village in Ethiopia that we have been funding since 2015. By financing these projects we mirror every litre of water we extract from the milk in the Netherlands during the production of milk for the African consumer market.