Nestle Vietnam plans to expand its “NEST Sisters” programme that provides rural women with training in nutrition, taking care of themselves and their families, and gradually improving their income, to 21 cities and provinces this year.

The programme, which Nestle is carrying out in collaboration with the Women’s Union, has, in more than a year, trained some 800 women in 120 communes in six northern provinces, Thai Binh, Hai Dương, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, Hung Yen, and Ninh Binh.

With the expansion, the programme hopes to benefit another 2,500 women in 400 communes.

NESCAFE Plan is another social programme under which the company preps women for leadership roles and helps coffee farmers improve their income.

So far, 274 sustainable coffee cultivation farmer groups have been established under the programme with 21,000 members. More than 30 per cent of group leaders are women.

Women trained in new farming methods and production management also account for 30 per cent of the total of 200,000 farmers trained under the programme.

It has supplied 21 million high-yield, disease-resistant coffee seedlings to farmers to replant 20,000 hectares of ageing coffee in the Central Highlands and helped more than 21,000 farmers get 4C (Common Code for Coffee Community) standards certification for sustainable production and trading.

For contributions to empowering women, especially in rural areas, Nestle has been awarded a certificate of merit by the Central Việt Nam Women's Union. — VNS