Entry: Chelsea Coffin

This spring, I have had the opportunity to intern at the World Cocoa Foundation with the Empowering Cocoa Households with Opportunities and Education Solutions Alliance (ECHOES), which seeks to broaden possibilities for youth in the cocoa-growing areas of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. ECHOES is a public-private partnership, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and World Cocoa Foundation industry members. My initial interest in ECHOES lay in the prospect of an educational model that makes sense in a community driven by agriculture, and over the past 5 months, I have been able to see how that model is operationalized.

Previously, as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching in a Mozambican secondary school, I witnessed some of the ubiquitous challenges to formal education that are presented by a rural environment. Some children were unable to attend school due to budget constraints. Many enrolled students were unmotivated to learn in the formal classroom. Most graduates lacked relevant skills to be an effective member of their local economy. Although Mozambique doesn’t produce any cocoa, its educational system suffers from a similar disconnect between engaging classrooms, relevant curricula, and local possibilities. Unfortunately, the gaps between the purpose and execution of formal education extend beyond Mozambique, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, which makes ECHOES exciting to me as a new possibility for education in the developing world.

ECHOES works within and alongside the school system to combat some of the most pressing issues in the quality and content of formal education. Teacher trainings and technology-equipped resource centers enhance the basic education experience while classes in agriculture and entrepreneurship give youths tools for their future and motivation to learn. Children are not the only beneficiaries, as adults can take functional literacy classes or receive grants to send their children to school and invest in a business. In these ways and others, ECHOES supports and supplements the current delivery of knowledge, which enables people in rural communities to take advantage of their personal and local resources.

This year, as a graduate student studying international development, I was in need of some quality and relevant experience myself. World Cocoa Foundation's ECHOES program has given me a solid example of a framework that expands choices and options, which too often define poverty, through empowerment and education.