By Wickham, Danielle and Fatimah | Project Leaders
It's been an exciting whirlwind on the ground in Ghana the last two months. Fatimah and Danielle have been in the field with our survey squad (a local team of 10) collecting crucial data and distributing Pay it Forward Safety Kits for almost 325 new members! Safety kits mean the harvesters, who are all women and moms, can collect the fallen shea fruits more safely and efficiently and increase their earning potential.
Thanks to your support we have more than tripled our reach in this first expansion phase. There are now 373 Just Shea Women from 7 villages!!
A few weeks ago we facilitated the sale of last year's sheanuts from the Just Shea Collective Warehouse. We AGAIN helped the women secure a sale price that is double what they were making before they joined the program!
In these 30 second micro-interviews we asked how they will invest their increased earnings. The answers: additional income generation activities, like small businesses and planting food crops, and paying school fees for their kids.
With the collective sale we also recouped 100 percent of the interest free loans we made available for 40 women to help them cover immediate cash flow needs, allowing them hold out for a higher price for their sheanuts later in the season.
This opportunity for the women to take out loans using shea they stored in the Just Shea warehouse, allows them to mitigate risk. It was so impactful that we are formalizing the Just Shea Social Loan Fund this year!
Our goal is 100 bucks per woman and if you contribute $1,000 or more you can have your investment back next May! Pretty cool, right?! Considering interest rates are at an all time low in America, the human interest you gain in this one year, we think, will give you a much greater return.
Feel free to email us (danielle@justshea.com) if you have any questions about it! Oh and did you see the New York Times article Marci Alboher wrote about us? There's also a link on our Facebook Page with some new photos from the field.
…AND, lest we forget, a beautiful documentary featuring the Just Shea Women aired last week on China’s CCTV NEWS Faces of Africa Series last week. Here’s the LINK in case you missed it.
Whew, we are having a big spring. Help us keep rolling along.
Tipagaya! (We Appreciate You!),
Danielle, Wicki and Fatimah
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