Since 2019 MOAS has been working with a network of partners worldwide to deliver lipid-based nutrition to children suffering from, or at risk of, malnutrition. In developing this program, MOAS built a new and very successful relationship with Edesia, a non-profit social enterprise launched in 2010 that develops, manufactures and delivers specialised food for every stage of malnutrition to over 65 countries worldwide.
Edesia engages with partners like USAID, UNICEF, and WFP but also has a portfolio of smaller partners, such as MOAS, with whom it works to fill specific and challenging gaps in the global nutrition pipelines. Together, MOAS and Edesia have delivered 423 tons of products to thousands of vulnerable individuals (especially children) in Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan.
Having sat in on many virtual tours of their incredible state-of-the-art facility in Rhode Island, our Director of Operations, Christina Lejman, was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the plant in person last month when she was in New York for our Siren’s of Hope book launch.
Christina made the three-hour train journey out of the city, along the coast, across Connecticut and into Rhode Island. The landscape changed dramatically as the train climbed north, with oceanfront beaches along the tidal shoreline disappearing behind the forests of the Northeastern Coastal Forests Ecoregion. A short taxi ride from Kingston, the driver’s dachshund navigating from the passenger seat, brought us to the Edesia facility in no time at all.
Upon arrival, Monica was waiting at reception. Monica is one of Edesia’s incredible Development officers, who are all dedicated and passionate about their work.
The visit started with an opportunity for Christina to visit the model nutrition clinic in the lobby, a demonstration of where a child in our program might get checked by a medic and shown how to use the various products on offer. As part of this demonstration, we were delighted to receive sample packets of all the products on offer, which we look forward to using for our own awareness-raising and educational events.
Finally, it was time for the manufacturing tour. Edesia make everything from scratch, having to combine tonnes and tonnes of raw ingredients, pumped into the sterile manufacturing room through a complex and colourful series or pipes running across the ceiling. Enormous sack of nuts, vats of oil, sugar, milk powder and more are rotated into the mix in perfect ratios to create life-saving foods of every description. Sadly, manufacturing images are not allowed, but the newly refurbished factory floor runs like clockwork.
The mixing, packaging, boxing, and pelleting are all automated systems with efficient and effective workflow management structures behind them. However, Edesia is nothing if not a perfectionist, and the quality of their product is a point of pride. Experienced quality control staff interact with manufacturing at every stage. Edesia’s staff check the formula for its chemical makeup, verifies seals and weigh boxes, and generally ensures that any tiny discrepancy is caught and fixed in real-time.
Edesia is expanding; the team is already made up of 150 people from 25 countries who work hard around the clock to keep things at the factory moving smoothly. With their interventions, they have reached over 22 million people, and they are on the frontline of the fight to save the 3 million children, one every eleven seconds, who will die of malnutrition this year alone if their circumstances don’t change.
Finally, it was time to sit in the breakroom and share a few minutes of solidarity with all the many Edesia representatives we have worked with over the years, including their incredible Founder and CEO, Navyn Salem. It was an honour and privilege for Christina to meet our counterparts in person and be able to reflect on the achievements we’ve shared and the work we still have to do together.
The trip back to New York city for the Siren’s of Hope launch was a peaceful and pensive one. Each step forward in our work, each partnership we develop or the activity we launch only serves as a reminder that there is so much more to do, that there is never an end to the need and always opportunities to expand and grow our operations. The trip to visit Edesia only served to renew our commitment to our aid delivery activities and motivate the team to maintain operations in this area.
Stay tuned on all MOAS socials and comms channels to see what MOAS and Edesia have planned next. This trip only strengthened our partnership and our determination as we look to the future and establish where and how our joint activities might benefit those in crisis.
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