1. Milk Times
Dear readers!
We are glad to present you the first issue of the newsletter which will
highlight the most important and significant achievements of the
Milk communities project. The project was launched in June 2010
in Ukraine with the purpose to develop and support individual milk
producers who live in rural areas by transforming them into milk
cooperatives. It is the social initiative of Danone, which is financed by
№ 1
The project plays important role not only
in Ukraine, but abroad as well, because
successful model of milk communities’
development will allow replication to another
countries.
The essence of the project is to give milk
community all equipment needed for
milk collection and cooling, together
with corresponding trainings on quality,
management, accounting and other matters
connected to operation of cooperative. Our
main target is to create sustainable model of
rural family development by improving their
personal incomes and transforming them into
micro-farmers. As soon as people understand
it is profitable to increase cow’s number, today
in average people have 2-3 cows, and we have
a vision to reach the level of 10-15 cows in
2016 for a part of these people.
Success of the project is in synergy of efforts
taken by all participants: Danone, Heifer,
government, other NGO and the communities
itself. Danone created the team of professional
managers to develop the project and react on
all possible changes. From Danone Ecosystem
Fund they are: Phillipp Bassin, Jean-
Christophe Laugee, Romain Joly and Pierre
Bou. From Danone Ukraine: Dario Marchetti,
Alexander Prischepa, Valeria Trifonova,
Svitlana Yarymova and Andriy Mashyna. And
of course I could not forget about all Danone
departments taking part in implementation
of the project: milk purchase, legal, finance,
accountant, logistics, quality, PR and other. All
of us are constantly working on improvement
of quality of life of rural inhabitants, together
with creation of new work places and
improvement of goodwill of our company in
Ukraine and abroad!
Andriy Mashyna:
«Milk community
is a sustainable
model to develop
village families
in Ukraine»
Today we have more than 2400
members of 24 cooperatives
in Kirovograd, Kherson,
Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhe, Poltava
regions and the Crimea.
Year-to-day 2011, we have 30%
milk supplies from cooperatives to
Danone-Dnipro plant in Kherson,
this equals to 5500 tons during
11 months.
Danone Ecosystem Fund and is implemented in partnership with
such NGOs as Heifer Project International along with the strong
support of local authorities.
In the first issue you’ll find out what has been achieved since the
launch of the project and what is planned to be done in the nearest
future.
◀ Andriy Mashyna,
Danone Ukraine Milk
Project Manager

2. On December 7, 2011 the new project
Cooperative Learning Farm and Services was
launched with presentation and follow up field
visit for groundbreaking ceremony. The event
gathered media and all donors and partners
involved in the New project implementation,
including Danone Ecosystem Fund, Danone-
Ukraine, Heifer-Ukraine (ICO Community
Wellbeing), Heifer International, CIDA and
SOCODEVI. The constructed farm is to be
officially launched in the late spring of 2012.
Dec 07 was also filled with visits to family
farms supported within the frame of the Milk
Success of cooperation within Milk
communities project: Cooperative Learning
Farm will be built in Dnipropetrovsk region
◀ Victor Teres,
Country Director/
President of
International
charitable
organization
Community
Wellbeing (Heifer-
Ukraine)
Milk communities project aims to improve the
wellbeing of all its members even the smallest
ones – kids.
In Ukraine children living in rural areas have
fewer opportunities than kids who live in big
cities.
That’s why in the framework of Milk
communities Danone Ukraine launched an
initiative to install playgrounds in villages where
milk cooperatives are organized to make the
childhood of those kids brighter.
So far, we’ve installed 7 playgrounds in 7
villages in Kirovograd, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk,
Zaporozhe, Poltava regions and the Crimea.
In this issue we have the feedback from Yury
Tkachev, Leader of Milk Cooperative
‘Krymekoprodukt’, Crimea:
– In spring 2011 Danone Ukraine installed a
children playground in the Razdolnoe village,
Crimea.
The playground is installed on the territory of
the kindergarten which includes over 90 kids.
From the first site – there is nothing special
about it. But in fact, we had no bigger joy for the
past years. From the very first day village kids
are happy to play there. And surprisingly, there
are no “fights” who and where will play, they
tolerantly wait for their turn to the swing.
I’m sure that such initiatives have only good
impact on the society as a whole and on small
communities in particular.
Milk Cоmmunities Take Care About Kids
◀ Yury Tkachev,
Leader of Milk
Cooperative
‘Krymekoprodukt’,
Crimea
Communities project – the first collaboration
project between Heifer and Danone.
The official launch of the project also included
a National press conference at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Food of Ukraine, which provided the
floor for discussing the possibilities for scaling up
our collaboration in Ukraine, where new (third) joint
project for Strawberry coops (Ecofruit) development
was also presented.
We are proud to share our achievements in
developing Ukrainian rural communities by
bringing hope and prosperity to Ukrainian villagers.
Danone Ukraine
Andriy Mashyna
andriy.mashyna@danone.com
Danone Ecosystem Fund
Jean-Christophe Laugee
jean-christophe.laugee@danone.com
International Charity Organization
Community Wellbeing
Viktor Teres
viktor.teres@heifer.org.ua
Well done!
Our partnership