MADISON, Wis. – The World Council of Credit Unions has been awarded over 26,000 metric tons of wheat to support one of its projects against AIDS and HIV in Africa.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service made the award through its Food for Progress program.
According to Cassie Radiemaekers, project support specialist for WOCCU, the organization will have to identify a shipper for the wheat and then facilitate the selling of the grain at the wholesale level in Kenya. The wheat will then likely be sold at the retail level in Nairobi and other major Kenyan cities. The African country has been experiencing a drought that has diminished the ability of its own agricultural sector to meet market demand.
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The effort will bring roughly $4.6 million, according to WOCCU, and the organization will in turn use that money to help support its work with Kenyan Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs), which are the Kenyan version of credit unions. WOCCU is helping two of the largest SACCOs in the country to develop products and services that the SACCOs can use to support members suffering from the impact of HIV/AIDS.
This is the second time WOCCU has been called into the grain market in a developing country, Radiemaekers said. Previously the organization had been involved in a similar effort in Sri Lanka.
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