Help small cocoa farmers make a living

AELAN CHOCOLATE MAKERS, Our first batch and chocolate bars sold, then Cyclone Pam.

Dear friends, followers, this report could have been the one we dreamed of but circumstances and Mother Nature decided otherwise. You are all well aware of the laborious tasks undertaken and steps climbed to reach this one day where we finally wrapped our first chocolate bars. This was back early march when Sandrine and I sold our first ever chocolate bars. So encouraging. But Mother Nature thought it would be useful to keep testing our motivation further and sent us the heaviest cyclone ever witnessed in Vanuatu and probably on earth. Winds blowing at 340km per hour and rain flooding any shelter. Our small island nation has been stroked severely but will rebuild. Our heart lies with these families who’ve lost relatives, friends, parents and those who were not as lucky as us and have lost their homes and belongings in the tempest.

Since that Friday 13^th or March 2015 we’ve been involved in all the possible ways in assisting the communities and people of Vanuatu. Now that we are over immediate response urgency, time has come to assess the situation. For Aelan Chocolate Makers we have lost an entire roof covering our packaging and storage room. As a result we have lost most of our cocoa stock and about 10% of the chocolate that was not processed before the cyclone hit. Left with short amount of time once tropical storm transformed into cyclone Pam, we decided to stop processing and concentrate all efforts in preparing and protecting the factory the best way we could. It involved taking down 200 square meters of traditional roofing and anchoring other roofs with not less than 200m of ropes and strappings, lifting 30 bags filled with 60kg of stones to load the roofs and moving any piece of equipment and the whole archives and accounting material in what seemed to be safe places. Honestly, after what we’ve seen I have doubts in what makes the difference between safe place and another place. Lucky we were in losing only a roof. The night of the Cyclone the factory hosted over 45 people from neighboring communities as their modest houses were far from safe to make it through the night.

After placing the last pieces of plywood to obstruct the windows and walls exposed to the winds, we left the factory and went home for a long, very long and intense night. Hard to find sleep in such moments. I grew up as a sailor and believed I had seen bad weather but nothing comparable or possibly imaginable. At one in the morning I went to my bed after seeing a 2inch thick iron pole supporting the electric lines next to our house bend like a bamboo. Thought we would need strength if the roof was blown up by the wind. It did not happen to us but many others. The next day was about getting in touch with as many people as possible, taking injured ones to hospital and dealing with evacuation centers after getting out of our respective houses cutting trees with machetes, axes and hand or chainsaws. Intense. So were the following weeks up to date.

Last w-end we finally managed to get time to clean up the machines and get a proper view on what needs to be done to put the place back in shape. No need to mention the discouragement and heaviness of the situation but in the meantime we received support from volunteers from red cross and friends to move forward together. Warm feeling to see everyone shoulder to shoulder and the whole nation smiling in the streets and doing what has to be done. This is Vanuatu, resilient.

As we write this report we are now expecting Natangura leaves to be shipped from less affected islands in the North to rebuild our roof. Harvesting started in the Notrh of Vanuatu as well though we should get some cocoa too and process our next batch soon. As post services have re-opened, we are also looking to fulfill our commitments and send a chocolate bar to all of you who supported us and trusted in our project. Please e-mail us your personal address at activassociation@hotmail.com  we will make sure you get a chance to taste what you contributed to, we lack words to thank you enough.

For those of you who are looking to support this country, we have launched a campaign on Global Giving https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/vanuatu-communities-support-cyclone-pam/  and raise funds to rebuild our neighboring school and assist the best we can our communities in islands. We thank you for your help.    

With love from Vanuatu, Olivier and Sandrine.