Agreement to support the "Crecer" Food Security project

ORU Fogar, the Government of Catalonia and the Prefecture of Azuay have signed an agreement to support "Crecer", the Food Security project of the Province of Azuay, Ecuador. 

The central purpose of "Crecer", which has been going on for years, is to eradicate malnutrition in Azuay. Crecer has benefited 50,000 families, delivering 1 litre of milk daily to 10,000 families, which have been distributed in 52 points, both urban and rural parishes. In addition to the delivery of daily milk, Crecer provides mothers with preventive health care, dental care, training and education in nutrition, domestic violence and gender equity.

Through this agreement, the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of Catalonia and the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation will provide technical and financial support to the project. This experience will soon be replicated with similar projects in the Ecuadorian provinces of Cotopaxi, Morona Santiago and Pastaza, and in Colombian departments. 

This Catalan-Ecuadorian agreement has been forged within the ORU Fogar Food Safety Core Group. From 2016, the Core Group has been chaired by the Ecuadorian province of Azuay and by the former president of ORU Fogar, Paúl Carrasco. ORU Fogar, with the collaboration of FAO, has organized three regional summits on Food Security, a first in Dakar, Senegal, a second in Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia and the third, last April 2018, in Cuenca, Azuay.

The "Zero Hunger" Summit in Azuay, with the participation of nearly three thousand people, with regional presidents and a notable presence of leaders and personalities from all over the world, relaunched in a very important way the interest in sharing food security practices within ORU Fogar. 

Last March 20, coinciding with the signing of the agreement, the Core Group organized a Webinar to explain the "Crecer" project, with people connected in America and Europe. It is the first time that an experience of this type has been carried out, and the Core Group intends to keep it up. The next Webinar will focus on the Maná project of the Department of Antioquia, Colombia.