Entry: Susan Smith, National Confectioners Association
Cocoa’s Journey from Farm to Port
My twenty years of working with the chocolate, cocoa and candy industry includes trips to Costa Rica (twice), Ecuador, St. Lucia, Trinidad and the Ivory Coast. But there’s never been a trip that conveyed in quite this way the impact of the most basic raw ingredient in chocolate on the rural communities where it is grown.
Schools without Walls
While each part of the trip was a learning experience, a highlight was the opportunity to observe a farmer field school near Sekyerekrobo, Ghana. Farmer field schools are the cornerstone of the programs we all support through the World Cocoa Foundation. The “school without walls” taught among the cocoa trees, clearly has had a positive economic and social impact on the community. Cocoa farmer Mary hosted our group. She and many of the other farmer participants, with the assistance of a facilitator, have established a comfortable learning environment together. Mary has raised 5 children and is a strong advocate for the farmer field school concept, explaining that her family’s yields from cocoa increased by 25-30% through the techniques she learned including pruning her trees as well as weeding the ground between the trees.
Photo: Louise Hilsen of Nestle and Mary after the farmer field school session.
After visiting Mary’s farm we made our way to the village of Sekyerekrobo where we received an incredibly warm welcome from Tony Dogbe of PDA Associates, the International Cocoa Initiative’s partner in Ghana, as well as village elders and community members. WCF, STCP and ICI are working together in Sekyerekrobo with the community on issues involving the appropriate role for children and the need for education.
Opportunities for Education in Cocoa Communities
As with rural communities in the United States, families want to be able to offer their children opportunities to stay in local villages and continue farming. The Cocoa Tour also visited Bechem Teacher Resource Center of St. Joseph’s College which is supported by the International Foundation for Education and Self Help and funded by WCF member The Hershey Company. St Joseph’s works to educate future teachers who then return to local communities. Following the Bechem Teacher Center there was an after dark visit to a cooperative of women located nearby who produce soap by hand from cocoa husks. Travel can be difficult in Ghana and the women, like the student teachers at Bechem, had been waiting for us for several hours by the time we arrived. The research unit of the Ghana Cocoa Board is active in finding uses for all parts of the cocoa pod. While the cooperative was small, the soap these rural impoverished women make is popular in Ghana. This is one example of the many ways rural Ghanaian communities sustain themselves through cocoa.
Photo: Tour participants tour the teacher resource center.
Healthy Cocoa Communities
In Accra, Bill and Tracey arranged a meeting for Melane Rose Boyce and me with representatives from the Family Health Institute, a program NCA is supporting through the World Cocoa Foundation to educate cocoa farming communities in Ghana on malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention. Malaria is endemic throughout Ghana and is a leading cause of death, especially among children under five, and pregnant women. The four cocoa producing regions of Ghana suffer from the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country.
The project is beginning in 4 communities in Ghana, two each in the Ashanti and Western regions. The communities are associated with a network of farmer field schools, where villagers like Mary have experienced the positive benefits the schools can bring. Currently, FHI is developing the curriculum which will be shared with community members who are interested in seeking additional training on awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Notes from the Field
Melane will remain in Ghana through early August. She observed an ICI training session in western Ghana last week. Bill is going back in September. The travel back and forth can be exhausting as can the experience itself. But cocoa’s ties to Ghana are strong and the resilience of its people impressive. Further, the programs we all support are successfully linking to make a difference. It’s hard to ask for more