Aflatoxin is increasingly breaking into mainstream agendas, and that means joining the conversation in all the arenas where it matters most, like health and economics. We’re continuing to converse in a rainbow array of tongues too: we’re collating and expanding our French content; we have a fresh how-to in Kiswahili for Kenya; and we’re delighted to support a bouquet of local-language videos for Senegal. And the grass isn’t growing under our feet as we update our communications products to reflect Aflasafe’s progress across Africa…
We’re seeing the beginnings of an exciting leap forward in aflatoxin awareness across Africa. Aflatoxin is, rightly, no longer just seen as an agricultural issue, but we’re seeing it mentioned in conversations around for example health, economics and trade. These are areas where aflatoxin takes a huge toll on whole nations, as it bites hard into our health and our incomes. And that’s reflected in media interest and coverage; you can find plenty of examples in our recent press cuttings, where aflatoxin is increasingly being mentioned in health and business sections. We’re supporting our partners in several countries to build public awareness – for example, joining the Ghana Standards Authority’s national campaign – and we’re looking forward to participating in growing dialogues around food safety.
Sadly, Kenya has seen news of a spate of contaminated food scandals, particularly peanut butter. While this is bad news in itself – and further confirmation of the dangerous aflatoxin levels in food that are endemic across Africa – we’re glad to see aflatoxin making headline news across many outlets. With contamination in the public eye, we feel confident that tackling the food safety with tools and best practices like Aflasafe will be an ever greater public priority.
Meanwhile, we’re working hard to get the word out in ways that work for our audience. A big chunk of our users and partners in West Africa are French speakers. And so, working with our country partners, we’re translating some of our most relevant news stories, starting with two from Senegal, on business-to-business interactions and an unusual business choice, plus one from Burkina Faso on our exciting royal ambassadors for Aflasafe BF01 (curious anglophones can click through to the English versions at the top of each article too!). We will continue adding to this collection, but luckily we have just the place for you to check back: our brand new En français page, which gathers together all our French content in one easy-to-find place (check out the new addition to our footer on any page of the Aflasafe website), including videos, news stories and press releases, leaflets, press cuttings and more.
But West Africa’s about many more languages too; last issue we reported on the business-to-business promotional video produced by BAMTAARE, our manufacturing and distribution partner in Senegal, with our support. They started out with French, and have now added videos in Mandingo, Pulaar, Serer and Wolof. This makes the video – tailored to BAMTAARE’s needs in reaching out to agribusiness entrepreneurs and development agencies with a potential interest in Aflasafe or aflatoxin-safe grain – even more valuable in this polyglot nation.
Travelling to East Africa, we’ve made essential info available to another swathe of readers in our new how-to leaflet in Kiswahili for Kenya. Following on from the English version, it’s a brief guide for farmers on Aflasafe KE01 and how to use it effectively.
The Aflasafe journey continues as we transfer this mighty aflatoxin-cutting tool to our national partners – so Aflasafe is being registered, made available and going on sale in more and more countries, and this means we need to update our communications products to keep up! This year has already seen fresh versions of our introductory Q&A and ATTC brochure in English as well as of our infographic on Where are we with Aflasafe in Africa?, a great visual overview of our progress on commercialisation including distribution partners and area covered as of Quarter 1. But the dynamic world of Aflasafe never stands still, with the situation changing all the time, so our Aflasafe where I am page is the place to go for all the latest as it happens.
