encouraging sustainable, responsible cocoa growing

Entry: Charlie Feezel

I recently had the great good fortune to meet and discuss cocoa with several hundred U.S. teachers at the Annual Meeting/Representative Assembly of the National Education Association (NEA), held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between June 29-July 2.

World Cocoa Foundation had a booth at the NEA Expo where my colleagues and I met representative teachers from across America. We were able to talk about our Empowering Cocoa Households with Opportunities and Education Solutions (ECHOES) program in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The timing for the Expo was helpful, as we are gathering information to help develop cocoa education modules for use in math, science, social studies, language, music and many other educational settings. The advice and input of these teachers is an essential part of the process.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the widespread and very sincere interest these teachers had in the people of cocoa growing countries and the activities of the World Cocoa Foundation. Many of the teachers we met had already done very interesting things in their classes with cocoa and chocolate.

My booth partners were Brandy Bertram of Making Cents International, US, Maimouna Doukoure of the Embassy of Côte d’Ivoire and Stanley Straughter of the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH) We were able to start up a network of teacher advisors who will help guide the cocoa module development in a way that enhances learning and makes it more fun at the same time. The overwhelming support of the teachers we met makes me think this is the beginning of a strong friendship.