Photo: Corey Lindley, doTERRA’s founding executive, president and CFO.
doTERRA, a Pleasant Grove, Utah-based global essential oils company, has announced its social impact and community building initiatives in Kenya.
Since launching operations in rural Kenya two years ago with its partner, Fairoils, doTERRA’s Co-Impact Sourcing® initiative has partnered with smallholder farmers in southern Kenya to create hundreds of jobs and is expected to create more than 5,000 rural farming jobs by 2020. The doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation® also has provided funding and resources to complete nine community projects that have benefitted the health and well-being of thousands of Kenyans, with more in the pipeline.
“As doTERRA’s demand for essential oils continues to grow, so does our global supply chain, which now extends to more than 40 countries,” said Corey Lindley, doTERRA’s founding executive, president and CFO. “We’re very pleased to improve the quality of life in this area and bring ethically responsible employment in essential oil production to low-income Kenyan communities. From rehabilitating dilapidated schools for Kenyan children to training farmers to increase their capacity and earning potential, our initiatives have already made a significant social impact in two short years. We look forward to expanding these initiatives to create positive impact on an even larger scale in the coming years.”
Through its strategic partnership with Fairoils, an expert organization in farming and essential oil production, doTERRA has helped form cooperative farming groups within various communities across Kenya to produce CPTG® quality essential oils. Key initiatives in Kenya have included the Lunga Lunga Project, a 300-acre model farm, distillation facility and a small-scale farming cooperative producing essential oil crops; and the Mount Kenya Project, a small-scale farming cooperative of initially 250 smallholder farmers, a training center and a distillation facility. doTERRA plans to expand this group to more than 2,500 farmers by 2020.
In the past two years, the following community projects in Kenya have been funded through donations from the doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation: construction of a new community center, kindergarten, community water tower and river bridge; improvements to two primary schools; creation of a water maintenance trust fund; indigenous culture and health trainings for more than 2,000 school-aged children; and education and reforestation of indigenous trees.
In addition to donations from the doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation, doTERRA has established a Community Development Fund in Kenya. For every kilogram of essential oil produced by its farmer cooperatives, a portion of that revenue is set aside in a fund overseen by the cooperatives themselves to finance larger development projects at their discretion.
