Over the course of the last year we’ve partnered with Juntos por Olón, a Swiss-German charity based in Olón, a small coastal town that borders Ecuador’s Cloud Forest. Working together with our new partners, we’ve been helping to provide equipment and support to local farmers who have had their livelihoods interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our project, ‘Chocolate for Change’, was created to help this community in the short term by providing them with the practical training and equipment that will allow them to demand a higher price for their cacao crop.
We hope to build upon this success over the course of the new year by helping our new friends in Olón to start producing their own, finished chocolate.
By empowering farmers in places like Olón to take control of their own livelihoods, and create their own small, successful independent businesses, we’re not just providing them with temporary alleviation from some of the pressures that the pandemic has placed placed upon their community; we’re helping our new partners build towards a more prosperous and sustainable future.
On July this year we started raising funds for this project, we hosted a chocolate dessert tasting evening alongside our friends at Origin Coffee Roasters and wonderful pastry chef, Mariana Chaves. The evening was an absolute success and we’re beyond grateful for the support we received.
Through your incredible generosity, we’ve even been able to facilitate the building of new cacao fermentation boxes and drying beds for the farmers in Olón, a development which will help to safeguard their livelihoods and allow them to demand a better deal for their crop.
We’re really excited about this project and will continue to update you with the progress that we make over the course of the next year.