Moving forward and encompassing all Roger Gilbert, Publisher and M4L Trustee We received the official registration number for our new charity ‘Milling 4 Life’ on April 24, 2017. We are now registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (Charitable number: 1172699) in the UK. A reminder of the charity’s’ objectives, “To promote sustainable development for the benefit of the public by the relief of poverty and the improvement of the conditions of life in socially and economically disadvantaged communities through the development of food and feed milling processes and storage and agriculture.” Alongside, “Sustainable development means development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” We have been running this column in the magazine for some months now, with our trustees sharing the task. For background, you might recall we announced the formation of the charity in Ethiopia last November while attending the IAOM Middle East meeting Addis Ababa. That might have been a little premature given we only received official confirmation of our status six weeks ago, but we had the opportunity to meet with African Union representatives at a major event held in Africa for African millers, and discuss how the industry and storage sector in particular could assist with progressing both flour, feed and aquafeed milling among key countries under the African Union’s umbrella. In fact, we highlighted the opportunity to make a significant impact with a meeting on crop storage. Fifty percent of all harvested crops throughout Africa do not make it into the production process and are wasted. It would be invaluable if we, the industry, together with the industry’s storage suppliers, could help African agriculture address this problem and reduce this unacceptable level of wastage. Better and more appropriate storage would also mean that crops coming out of storage, ready for use in feed 24 | July 2017 - Milling and Grain
and food production, would be in better shape. We left that meeting with the possibility of setting up a trial storage facility that the African Union could promote to its member states as one possible solution in given circumstances. That project is still in the formation stages. Small and large The charity is not just about large projects only. Its primary focus is ‘to relive poverty through the adoption of milling processes’. One key activity of the charity will be to identify and bring to events, such as expos, conference and training venues - for one-week intensive learning experiences -individuals from developing countries who we consider are making a contribution to improving milling outcomes in their own countries. We will be working with national associations and others in a selection of developing countries to identify the most deserving. With that in mind we welcome any suggestions from our readers on how we might go about identifying deserving projects and to learn how you feel the charity might help. While the charity has been formed by Milling and Grain magazine, it is our clear intention to make this an industry vehicle that can gather in funds without prejudice from companies and individuals in support clearly defined projects with specific goals. The six trustees of the Charity have undertaken to ensure that 100 percent of every donation coming from industry or individuals will go towards a given project. Donors can follow the projects they are supporting through regular, updated reports on the M4L website (which is still under development). We already have one donation of €1500 and soon, with a bank account in place, we will be able to accept donations from anywhere in the developed world. We might be considered naive to think that we can change the world, however we intend to start out taking one small step at a time toward that objective, and see what we can do to bring relief to those who suffer malnutrition and hunger by using the best that we have to offer - milling knowledge, experience and support.