ENGAGED ETHICS
GHANA
COCOA YIELDS
FARMERS
JOBS
EDUCATION
RABOT ESTATE, ST. LUCIA
COCOA GROWING
OUR STORY
Ghana – why we did it our wayOur work in Ghana began in 2002. A time when our Tasting Club membership was starting to really get curious about chocolate and its origins which matched our own increasing passion for knowing the whole story, the real story. Club members were starting to ask questions about how the cocoa is grown, and the lifestyles of the cocoa growers themselves. And to ask whether the balance was right, to question their own consumer values and to challenge us to provide some answers.
Never a team to do things by halves, we promptly despatched company director, Lynn Cunningham, to Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa-producing country. Lynn tells her story:
“My first trip to Ghana really established in me the desire for us to be involved first hand. We had looked at the very respectable achievements of Fair Trade and the Ethical Trading Initiative, but it was clear to me that we needed to do something that better fitted our own business culture…more hands-on. We had the opportunity to do something very real right there, in the villages of the Kwahu Praso region, which would immediately make a difference to hundreds of lives. The Hotel Chocolat board needed no persuading and I have worked with our partners in Ghana each year to decide which projects we would support and how. Over the 5 years since then I have visited our projects every year, avidly encouraged by a very supportive and engaged Club membership, and have been astonished by the impact of the changes I have seen through our involvement.”
In the early days Lynn and the Ghana team worked on building our relationships with the communities and the vitally-important cultural structure of chiefs, elders and interpreters. We provided local schools with educational materials, and the children with much-needed uniforms to enable them to attend school without being ashamed of their forlorn clothing. We repaired local buildings and we provided the cocoa farmers with tools to help them maintain their farms.
However, it rapidly became apparent that there was a bottomless pit of opportunities for us to provide financial relief for. Indeed, on Lynn’s second visit she was met by a group of disgruntled villagers who had virtually drawn up a shopping list of demands that they expected us to fulfil. “Pave the local roads, bring electricity to our villages, send our children to university in England,” they cried. On that trip, Lynn talked at length with the decision-makers in the community about the best way to bring sustainable benefits to the area.
“I wanted our support to be seen as a ladder to self-help rather than a crutch to be leant heavily upon. And I wanted the communities to buy-in to the fact that the projects would only be successful if they got involved and worked hard to support them, rather than waiting for cash handouts. The truth is, on that second visit, I got pretty stroppy with them all. It was a turning point really; I wasn’t there to be a kindly lady dishing out cash bonuses and kissing babies. I think it was the point at which they realised that I meant business. That Hotel Chocolat was committed to working with them, and that it was worth them making the effort to reap the rewards that must surely follow.”
That has been the basis of our support ever since, and through their growing trust of Lynn and the team we work with on the ground, the farmers have taken up the challenge and are driving their own projects.
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