Help 375 Just Shea Women Harvest Safer, Earn More

On June 4^th we had our first “Collective Welcome to Summer" to benefit the Just Shea Program under a full moon on the terrace of a fellow GlobalGiving supporter's office in mid-town Manhattan.

We were inspired to create this event for our supporters because of the success of our GlobalGiving Campaign. Many of you came to toast to these incredible women with us, and the overwhelming sentiment, what we found ourselves repeating to one another throughout the evening: It doesn’t take a whole lot to create an enormous impact in the lives of so many.

Since our last update we’ve raised enough funds to include an additional 25 women in our Just Shea Program. That means 25 more women will be provided with safety gear so they can harvest without fear of vipers and mambas, and become members of the Gushie Women's Shea Nut Collective. This will help them earn more income from their Shea so they can better provide for themselves and their children.

In April we we’re thrilled to report that we completed the construction of the first-ever cooperative women’s storage silo. (Check out the photos of the building going up here!) Since then, more than 100 additional women in Gushie have come forward, asking to participate in the safety gear and silo program. And we are committed to raising the funds to make that happen.

With your help, the Just Shea Program is giving women the collective leverage they need to create, from the village up, one village at a time, a just and equitable supply chain for their Shea nuts—and it doesn’t take a whole lot to make that happen.

Tipagaya (“We Appreciate”)

Links:

• One Village Planet-Women's Development Initiative
• Facebook
• https://twitter.com/#!/justsheaghana/