Dumex donates $1.65m in infant formula to Chinese NGOs

Dumex, an infant formula maker under Groupe Danone, a French food-products corporation, donated 10 million yuan ($1.65 million) worth of formula products to four non-government organizations in Beijing on Thursday.

Ye Dawei, deputy secretary-general of the China Red Ribbon Foundation, one of the organizations getting the donation, said the company in 2010 donated more than 9,600 cans of infant formula to 1,622 babies in Liangshan, Southwest China's Sichuan province, where the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is high. In 2012, it once again donated more than 8,000 bags of powdered milk to mothers and babies affected by HIV/AIDS in Sichuan province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

“Mothers with HIV/AIDS shouldn't breastfeed their babies in order to avoid mother-to-child transmission. However, in areas with high HIV prevalence, the economy often lags behind, people are less educated and lack nutrition, and many families affected by HIV/AIDS can't afford infant formula,” he said.