Philanthropist Rizwan Adatia has a mission to feed 10 million people by 2030 – News

The main focus of RAF Global has remained to uplift and better the lives of people in varied countries

While numerous forms of inequalities affect impoverished communities, hunger stands out as the most pressing one, given the growing awareness and global commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve food security for all. Rizwan Adatia, chairman at COGEF has been passionate about this cause. He has a vision to reach 10 million beneficiaries by 2030.

Adatia decided to extend his philanthropy and corporate responsibility initiatives to the next level by creating a foundation. In 2015, Adatia founded RAF Global with an aim to improve the quality of life of the most marginalised communities in Asia and Africa. The international board of RAF Global consists of professionals of repute from different walks of life working in Asian and African countries to meet the foundation’s international development commitments and to ensure efficiency of its programmes.

Adatia outlines the focus for RAF Global: “The focus of the foundation is on uplifting the lives of people in need in countries like India, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Madagascar, Swaziland, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The programmes of the foundation are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” Talking about providing health systems, he explained, “RAF Global focuses on improving health systems and promoting food security in disadvantaged communities while encouraging self-reliance through economic inclusion for vulnerable citizens, especially women and children, and upskilling workers to promote employability.”

Speaking about the CSR initiatives that are close to his heart Adatia enthuses, “Since I was born in Gujarat, the state is a major beneficiary of RAF Global. In Gujarat we have created self-help groups that go to the different villages and form small groups of women where they are taught various skill development activities which will help them in employment generation and earn livelihood. If they have a good business idea and it’s not taking off due to lack of finance, we extend financial help as well.”

Adatia’s journey inspired the making of a film about his life journey called ‘Rizwan’, someone who worked hard without bowing down to challenges establishing 22 cash-and-carry supermarkets, 130 retail wholesale outlets, and four manufacturing units, employing more than 4,000 people in ten countries of Africa, generating goodwill along the way. The profit from the film screening was to be diverted into various CSR.