Hi, I'm Peter Stedman, the African specialist in the Community Fair Trade team, and this is my story of the most recent of my regular trips to Ghana to see the wonderful ladies who make our shea butter. I was visiting to make sure they are happy with everything and to see if there is anything we can do to help the way that we work together.
Arrival and introduction
Bumping my way over Northern Ghanaian airspace, London and the office seemed very far away. In fact even the lush green of Accra, Ghana's capital, seemed much more than 45 minutes away. The land below was a deep sandy brown and the horizon was impossible to make out, blurred by the dust blown up from the hot Hamattan wind blowing south from the Sahara. This arid landscape is the home to our largest volume community ingredient supplier, the 476 women that make up the Tungteiya Shea extraction Association. This trip is just the latest of many that The Body Shop has made over the last 16 years, meeting our commitments to Tungteiya under our groundbreaking Community Fair Trade programme. The relationship started with Dame Anita Roddick, our founder, in the early 90's, and it was the same woman who first met Anita, Madam Anna Maria Fati Paul, who met me from the plane.
I was delighted to be back in Tamale, it was about 40 degrees, about 15 degrees hotter than I like it, but never the less I was delighted to back amongst these remarkable women who work so hard to produce Shea butter for us.
Best dressed
The next morning, after a very good sleep. I went to a rather special meeting. Around 55 women from each of the 11 local villages come together every three to four months to discuss the latest issues affecting their group. It's a fantastic opportunity for them to meet their friends from the other villages and have a catch-up (and a good sing-song - see video!). Watching them sing and be happy made me think we really should do more singing in the office back at home...
The women were all dressed up in their best outfits: bright, multi-coloured traditional clothes with matching skirts tops and head wraps. On this I should point something out. The fact that they ALL have best outfits is something to be joyful about. In the past, and still in many communities in northern Ghana, women have to SHARE a best outfit with up to 4 other friends. Yes that's right, SHARE. So apart from praying their sister-in-law doesn't put on too many pounds it also means that they never get to go anywhere special, the town market or church, together. How rubbish is that? Never being able to go out with all your friends at once.
So, now all the women have several sets of "best outfits". You should see what it's done for their self-esteem. They are really proud of their new clothes and the work that they've done to buy them, and as Madam Fati Paul said, they all look beautiful.
Next time you think "Oh I've got just the dress for that" just be thankful you don't have to check with your best friends first...!
Trying my hand at making Shea Butter
When I'm visiting our suppliers I like to get in there and see how the production process works, giving it a go myself to really understand the process.
Churning the Shea butter looked like fun, and didn't appear to be too hard, so I decided to have a go...
What I discovered was that it actually requires quite a bit of strength and a lot of stamina. Although I was a novice, the ladies were kind and told me my efforts weren't too bad, and that if I was stuck in Ghana by the volcano they would probably give me a job!! The butter is amazingly smooth to churn and feels nice on your hands - a bit like hot paint. Only problem I could see with this in the long term is only having one very smooth and very strong arm, always the right... never the left.... Ever!
You can have a look at my efforts in the video below. The women are laughing with me, not at me, honestly...
Some of the good stuff that's happening
As I mentioned before, one of the main reasons for coming over is to see how we can help on a practical level. We support and fund NOGCAF (North of Ghana Community Action Fund) who have consistently invested in the social infrastructure, schools, and healthcare facilities of the 11 villages in the area, giving them some of the basic services that most of us take for granted.
One of the most recent problems that NOGCAF have helped to solve is that of transporting the Shea Nuts. In the past, the women would gather them, and then have to walk many miles carrying them, either by hand or on their head (they have seriously strong necks!) This not only takes time, but can be quite exhausting in the African heat. A very simple solution was to invest in Motorkings - kind of like a motorbike with a pick-up bit at the back (see picture). It seems like an obvious and easy solution to us, but this kind of thing is really only made possible by the producers coming together under the Tungteiya Association to work together.
The other really valuable project the NOGCAF have been working on is a local maternity clinic. In the past, pregnant women and new mothers had to walk for miles and miles to get any sort of medical help and advice, and a long walk in the African heat when you're 7 months pregnant really isn't much fun, or at all safe if something is wrong. The new maternity clinic is in the centre of one of the villages and is accessible for all women in the area. It's been a real, positive success and has already helped hundreds of women stay healthy and happy. They have even bought the nurse, Laura Abukari, her very own motorbike so that she can get to emergencies quickly!
NOGCAF is clear, none of this would be possible without Community Fair Trade, so it's a real goose bump moment when you actually witness this impact first-hand.
Next Trip...
Kenya - more updates soon!
