Gender Equality Ghana Project #8733

Help 375 Just Shea Women Harvest Safer, Earn More

by One Village Planet-Women's Development Initiative

Help 375 Just Shea Women Harvest Safer, Earn More

Project Report | Jan 6, 2015
Thank you for everything we accomplished this year! We think you're super rad.

By Danielle and Wicki and all the Just Shea Women | Project Team

Increased safety means increased income for women

This has been a momentous year! Thank you for the support!

WE GREW the Just Shea Program from 50 women to reach a wonderful 375 women. And we have hundreds more on an active waiting list.

Together we can bring these women into the Just Shea Collective fold. Help them purchase their Pay it Forward safety kits with a loan paid back in sheanuts. So they can collect shea more safely, more efficiently and harvest an even larger crop to sell at double the price they'd earn without the Just Shea Collective.

WE FORGED PARTNERSHIPS

with NRG and GCP Solar to add handheld solar lights to the Just Shea safety kits so the Just Shea Women can travel to, and harvest safely in, the bush when they must collect sheanuts in the dark. (And their kids use them to study at night, too!)

with the Savannah Fruits Company and the retail brand Shea Moisture to facilitate a fully transparent shea supply chain, from the women who collect the wild fallen shea fruit, to the bottle on your bathroom shelf.

and with the Social Impact Research Lab at the Schulich School of Business, and academics from the business schools at the Universities of Denver, Utah and Ghana, to measure and share the impact of our safety program and the new Just Shea Social Loan Fund we've launched so that women can cover urgent cash needs in the lean season and at the same time aggregate their crop and earn higher prices.

WE BROUGHT into our fold

five new wonderful board members and some amazing advisors and volunteers to support and guide our growth. Welcome Loren and Brian and Ben and Ellen and Allen. Welcome Duke and Henry and Gloria and Arthur and Prakash and Marc and Louise and Sarah and Titania and Rebecca and Erin and Hedda and Sandra, who built our brand new website www.justshea.org!

and a handful of cool new vendors for the Just Shea Products, including the Carbon Beauty Amazon Store.

WE WERE PROUD to be

APPOINTED again to serve on the Global Shea Alliance Sustainability Working Group to help set ethical industry standards.

SELECTED as one of six to participate in a pitching session for the European Venture Philanthropy Association’s annual meeting in Berlin and, for the third time, to host a delegation from the US State Department’s African Women Entrepreneurship Program.

FEATURED in profiles in the New York Times and CoCa Cola, and in a documentary for China Central Television's Faces of Africa series.

And we know that in 2015 will be even more proud of what we will do together.

Happy Happy Holidays to our supporters around the world!

With Gratitude,
Danielle and Wicki and all the Just Shea Women

We are all so grateful for your believing...

many small actions together can change the world.

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