Yoba update

The Yoba for life foundation is spreading the Yoba for life concept throughout Uganda as we speak. The last couple of months the interns Dries Habraken and Barbara van der Biezen have been supporting the Yoba for life foundation.

During this internship Dries Habraken is developing Yoba flow chart diagrams. New Yoba producing companies could use these flow chart diagrams to optimize their Yoba productions. The flow chart diagrams will enclose subjects like production process, food safety, processing hygiene and disinfection matters. Also the use of the fresh starters and frozen starters will be enlightened. Our goal is to find new Yoba producing companies who are willing to participate in the Yoba program. This new developments also means that the Yoba yoghurt product will be available in several supermarkets, kiosks, hospital canteens and University canteens throughout the Kampala region. This week we contracted GALP Industries Ltd and as a result the GALP-Yoba product is soon available in supermarkets and kiosks. We are very proud of these developments and we would like to thank everyone for their enthusiasm and help. This would not be possible without the help of the UIRI management. Interns Dries Habraken and Barbara van der Biezen will be staying in Uganda for three more weeks and hope to contract more small scale Yoba producing companies before they leave.

New Yoba hygiene and food safety documents are developed which enlighten several important subjects like personal hygiene, disinfection, waste management, good manufacturing practices and food safety. This document will help these Yoba producing companies to get more insights about food safety and hygiene standards which are needed during Yoba yoghurt productions and dairy processing. Evolving from this hygiene and food safety document are the brand new checklists. This checklist will help these small scale Yoba producing companies to check their food safety and hygiene standards before, during and after Yoba production. This way they could always trace their steps. The UIRI team will be supervising these standards and will train new dairy processing employees to get familiar with the standards before participating in Yoba yoghurt production.

The Yoba network is growing rapidly. Several business relations are participating and the spread of the Yoba concept will grow in the upcoming months. Meanwhile students of the Makarere University in Kampala show their interest in the Yoba product and concept. The Yoba for life interns will be working together with these students to help them understand what this Yoba concept is all about. This way we can grow enthusiasm and build product knowledge. These students form the future of dairy technology and processing in Uganda so it is very important to involve them. At this moment Dries Habraken and Barbara van der Biezen are testing the Yoba products in the UIRI laboratory to gain more knowledge about the product. Students and interns are most welcome to join us for group discussions.

Meanwhile Barbara van der Biezen is redesigning the Life Dairy packaging. At this moment Yoba producing companies use their own bottles, cups, bags, labels and stickers. To introduce the African consumer with the Yoba concept we apply Yoba stickers on to the packaging. This sticker is a temporary solution and that is why Barbara van der Biezen is redesigning the printing plates in accusation with Life Dairy and Omega packaging. The new Life Dairy packaging will be containing new bar codes so supermarkets could easily sell the product. The Yoba for life foundation logo will also be printed in the new design so the use of stickers is not necessary anymore. Barbara will redesign the existing product labels of new Yoba producing companies by adding a Yoba logo if needed.

The Yoba for life foundation is also collaborating with the Life Dairy factory in Nkokonjeru owned by Fred Kaggwa. In this remote village outside of the Kampala area is the Nkokonjeru school feeding program evolving for the good. We are proud to introduce a new partner of the Yoba for life foundation. Hengchang Plastic (u) Co., Ltd is willing to participate in the school feeding program by donating free plastic drinking cups, plastic dinner plates and plastic washing buckets. The Yoba drinking cups will be produced of hardened, green plastic and there will be a white Yoba for life foundation logo up front. The children will love these cups because now they use all sorts of broken, poor or dirty cups and bottles. Sometimes the children use even lids or dirty plastic bags to collect their portion of free Yoba yoghurt. This will change for the good and the director of this new Yoba partner has agreed to assist the Yoba for life foundation when new developments are made in the future. This means that these kids will be provided with extra cups once in a while. We would like to thank Mr. Zhong Shuangquan for his generous offers and his participation in the Yoba for life concept.

One huge development is made by addressing the Uganda Ministry of Health. The interns Dries Habraken and Barbara van der Biezen connected the new Yoba partner to the Uganda Ministry of Health and planned a meeting to enlighten the Yoba concept in Uganda. This resulted in a lot of new contacts and enthusiasm at higher national levels. We would like to thank Jane Onega, Phoebe Katusabe and Samson Weddi for their time and their efforts. It is a good thing that these important people are now well known with the Yoba for life foundation concept. We are very anxious to see what these new partnerships and connection will bring us in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this article about our developments so far. Thank you.

We will keep you posted.

Dries Habraken &

Barbara van der Biezen