Have you ever wondered where your chocolate has come from? Or are you too busy indulging in the rich taste to care where it's from? Well it's quite likely the cocoa to produce your chocolate was grouwn here, Ghana. Cocoa is Ghana's most important crop as it is the largest earner of foreign revenue for the country. So cocoa makes the world go round, or at least fuels Ghana's economy.
I've been blessed in my life to have encountered some truly remarkable people who have inspired me in so many ways. Today I travelled out to Manso, a cocoa farming area, with some of the group to find out more about fair trade where I encountered a very strong woman called Comfort. Are mission was to find out whether farmer's like Comfort are getting a better deal and does buying fair trade really make a difference? The short answer is YES! I've seen it with my own eyes, the better working conditions, the funded community projects and how a fair trade co-operative empowers there members to have a voice.
The remarkable lady I met was Comfort Kumeah, a 59 year old farmer, mother, widow, grandmother and until very recentally a kindergarten teacher. Today we visited her at her home where we quickly exchanged greetings and were handed a part of wellington boots. 'My farm is very near... just over that hill' she said as quickly marched into the trees. After a bumpy 45 minute walk we arrived at her cocoa farm. Comfort proudly showed us the ripe cocoa pods and started to demonstrate the cocoa process; from nurturing the trees, breaking the pods, scooping the beans, drying the beans and crushing them - by no means easy work! Farming in the developing world is back breaking work with no machines to use.
While she showed us the process we took the opportunity to ask her about being park of Kuapa Kokoo, a fair trade co-operative. Comfort described the difficult days before the co-operative where the scales were fixed and the farmers never got enough for their crops. Since joining the co-operative she receives a fair price for her cocoa and also receives bonuses. Money is also invested into community projects like schools, water pumps and training farmers to use their skills when it is not the cocoa season. Kuapa Kokoo works with over 45, 000 farmers, who have a 45% share in Divine Chocolate (which you can buy in the UK). Comfort is passionate about people knowing where there food has come from and to know that a lot of love and hard work is invested into growing the cocoa used for chocolate.
Although cocoa is Ghana's main crop, chocolate is not part of the ghanaian diet. It is seen as a luxury that many can't afford. Comfort first tasted chocolate in 2002 after farming for over 25years. When we asked her if she had a message for the Uk she said, 'Buy fair trade chocolate because it's papapa for farmers' (papapa means very good).
If you want to find out more about fair trade then please log on to: www.christianaid.org.uk
Making change happen
Platform2 is a unique opportunity for 18-25 year olds from the UK to volunteer in a developing country and then come back and creatively express their experiences in the UK.
