In the Spotlight
Impact Highlights of the “Women for Chocolate” Program in Ghana as of September 2024:
• The VSLA program has already trained 121 farmers (46 male and 121 female farmers)
• 25 farmers have access to loans within the VSLA.
with a smile. We went to visit a few farms, including one owned by the only female chief, the Queen Mother, who was a tiny woman about my age farming a 5-acre parcel entirely by herself. It was not harvest season so the pods remaining on the trees looked dry and rotten, a problem that Ghana and the Ivory Coast are struggling with because of climate change and its unpredictable rainfall. My favourite experience happened at the end of the school day when we were in the village of Ashanti. A small boy of about 8 was walking home and I asked how his day was, and he smiled and continued to look at me as if he wanted to engage. After walking away, he stopped and turned his backpack and held it out to see if I was interested. We walked over and it he proudly shared his award for 3rd place in the 100-meter dash.
It was an incredible experience to see how these cocoa farmers live and how hard they work and how far their harvest is from the ports where their beans are sold to people like us very far away. We are excited to see the Women for Chocolate program take root and make a difference in the lives of these hard-working farmers.
Ellie, as Brand Manager for Seattle Chocolate, what role did you play in the Women for Chocolate initiative, and how did it influence your perspective on sustainable and ethical sourcing? Ellie Thompson: I travelled to Ghana to see the impact of our investment, and had the opportunity to meet the farmers, see how they live and get a sense for how hard everything is there. As the brand manager for Seattle Chocolate, this makes our commitment to Ghana feel so worthwhile. I felt their need and am committed more than ever to making this brand a success so our donations can go farther and in turn, do our part to ensure the success of cocoa in the future.
18 Kennedy’s Confection October 2024
How do you envision the future of the Women for Chocolate program and its role in promoting gender equality in the cocoa industry? ET: We feel fortunate to have the backing of Rikolto and its grant from the Belgian government to help in a place so far away. We will continue to ask the farmers what they most need and how we can best help. It is primarily the women and girls who must fetch the water from great distances, so building wells in the villages frees them up to do more. We also met three separate women who are responsible for farming their entire plot of land (5 acres or so) by themselves. The VSLA program teaches them to save their money and allows them to diversify their activities to add to their income and spread the money out over more months. We know women reinvest in their communities and
Can you share a particular moment or story from your trip to Ghana that resonated deeply with you? ET: Before heading to the bush, we visited Cape Castle, one of the places hundreds of thousands of Africans (prisoners of war or petty thieves) were launched into slavery to the Caribbean and North America. It’s a horrid part of our world history that we But what struck me was that these roots still leave a mark in Ghana. There is still government involvement and limiting of trade and suppression of income for the cocoa farmers there. They still live impoverished lives that feel desperate by comparison to ours. It really bolstered my commitment to the Women for Chocolate program, which gives us the opportunity to help in meaningful ways.
• Cumulatively, 374 farmers have project communities.
• 3 income generating activities selected by the leadership of the widows group.
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Improved knowledge and understanding on gender (household roles and division of labour) and 43 and 49 respectively. Two (2) community facilitators have reported to have conducted gender sensitization (43 members, males-15 education (49members, male- 17 & female – 22) during VSLA meetings in Subinso and Kpone Praso
• 3500 Agroforestry tree seedlings have been distributed to all Three Mountain Cocoa communities
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They have agreed that approximately 194 hectares of land will be developed and integrated into agroforestry practices.
investing in them, carries great promise for the next generation of cocoa farmers.
And finally, a question for both of you: In what ways has the Women for Chocolate program changed or influenced the practices and values at Seattle Chocolate? JT & ET: We’ve always worried about the cocoa farmers, and Women for Chocolate gives us the ability to help them in a real way. In 2024 we began making our own dark chocolate in-house which gave us the ability to source directly and pay farmers a fair price. The Women for Chocolate program supplements these efforts in areas where direct trade is not allowed (Ivory Coast and Ghana). We pay a lot more for our cocoa and chocolate than we did when we bought from a large corporation, corporate values “to defend the planet and empower the underserved”.
KennedysConfection.com
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