COCOA FOR SCHOOLS
Support Cocoa for Schools by purchasing these chocolates
By purchasing these chocolates you are supporting the cocoa for schools project. The “Cocoa for Schools” project is committed to make a difference in the lives of thousands of cocoa farmers and their families in Kyela and Tanzania. Investing in education is a huge part of how we try to improve these people’s lives. We do this because eduction has been shown to be the single most effective way for people to get out of poverty.
What the Cocoa for Schools project does
Through the “Cocoa for Schools” project, Kim’s Chocolates works tirelessly to improve the infrastructure for education in local communities. Building, completing or renovating around 1400 classrooms and teacher’s offices in the next 10-12 years and to distribute around 430.000 school books. Next to education, the project also assists farmers in a several ways. The project includes teaching agricultural skills, distributing new cocoa trees and the provision of solar electricity generating devices.
Cocoa for schools situation in the field
- Cocoa farmers make on average less than 1.5$/day
- Small farms
- Very low productivity
- Aging cocoa trees
- Prices are fixed on the stock exchange markets
- Labor practices on cocoa farms are an issue, with too many children participating in hazardous farming tasks or working at the expense of attending school. Some children may work on cocoa farms in a more vulnerable situation – having traveled away from their parents and immediate family members (= child slavery).
- Cocoa farming communities often face challenges too, in areas such as education and health.
What does cocoa for schools want to do?
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Strengthen the educational system
In a first step:
o Building classrooms, teacher offices
o Providing schoolbooks and other educational tools
o Setting up a surveillance system to ensure daily attendance of the childrenIn a second step:
o Providing water wells and build proper toilets and “bathhouses” o Put solar panels on the schools – introduce computers/internet o Improving the quality of the teachers – build teacher houses Improving the income of the families
- Increase productivity
- Provide new cocoa seedlings with higher output and more resistant to diseases
- Introduce Solar Home Systems to eradicate the use of kerosene and to increase their disposable income with 50%.
Where? … In Tanzania
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- Tanzania grows some 8-10,000 tons of cocoa in the Mbeya regio, in the micro-climate just above Lake Nyase in following districts: Kyela: 102 villages
Busokelo: 20 villages Rungwe: 9 villages - Cocoa is a cash crop for some 20-25,000 families
- We focus for the time being only on the primary schools of these 131 villages. That’s manageable for a company like ours and allows us to really focus.
- Tanzania grows some 8-10,000 tons of cocoa in the Mbeya regio, in the micro-climate just above Lake Nyase in following districts: Kyela: 102 villages
Funding
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FromKim’sChocolates
- A fixed amount on each ton of cocoa beans bought on our behalf
- Extra donations depending on our yearly results
- Fiscal year 2015-16: 399,053€
- 50% goes to the school project
- 50% goes to the productivity projects
- From our customers – 100% goes to the school projects
- From other sponsors – 100% goes to the school projects- Our forecasted income for 2017: 520,000€ of which 330,000€ will be spend on the schools