Entry: Charlie Feezel, World Cocoa Foundation

Yesterday, the World Cocoa Foundation ECHOES team (Meg Young, David Noyes and I) had the pleasure of being part of the 3rd Annual Educational Conference on the Sustainability of African Resources and Water Problems in Africa. The event was sponsored by the Let’s Go Africa Foundation and hosted by the Embassy of The Republic of Ghana. The five-hour event delivered vital information about sustainable water systems and needs to an audience of about 200 students and teachers from the Washington, D.C. area.

I was lucky enough to be on the panel to discuss WCF programs that contribute to the overall sustainability of rural African communities and, of course, talk a little about how cocoa is grown, made, and especially, how chocolate is tasted. We gave teachers a CD filled with ECHOES resources that use cocoa and chocolate as content for lessons in Math, Business, Science and Social Studies courses. We also made plans for some of the students and teachers to get involved in ECHOES school-to-school exchanges and pen pals programs.