My experience in Côte d'Ivoire began on December 3 with a quick stopover in Brussels before flying to the African continent.
Flying over our country, the Mediterranean and North Africa was a really crazy experience.
My journey into the world of cocoa begins in Grand-Bassam, the ancient capital of this wonderful nation that welcomed me in the best possible way. The Ouladine Lagoon has already given me truly exciting scenery.
The first two days have been very busy from the standpoint of meetings and input received but it is all extremely stimulating.
I had the opportunity to visit much of the residence of Centre Abel, the facility that houses me and is the headquarters of Communauté Abele, created by the Italian NGO Gruppo Abele in 1982.
A key place for this community where all education and training projects for disadvantaged people come to life.
Together with Imma, the person who oversees the training aspect and the transfer of technological knowledge to the staff of the cooperatives for Trusty in Côte d'Ivoire, I learned about the three typical activities that Communauté Abele uses for the training and reintegration into society of the boys: carpentry, animal husbandry and agriculture.
There are a lot of kids getting involved in the three areas learning the craft. To see them super active was very nice. The center is covered with wonderful plants: there are oil palms, coconut trees, banana trees, majolica trees, a papaya plant and a plant of our beloved cocoa.
In the visit we came across the figure of Abu (a person I will definitely not forget!) who showed us the rabbit farm and the cocoa plants. A gentleman who was with him opened the cabossa (fruit that grows on the cacao tree) in front of us, ate the pulp and then passed it to us because he wanted us to eat some too. What an experience!
Rain in the afternoon forced us to delay our plans and revise the itinerary but we still managed to complete in our meetings.
We visited Carrefour Jeunesse, the center that contains the Abele Group's various workshops, including CHOCO+, the one that specializes in creating chocolate bars. There we met Hervé, Roland and all the girls who work in the company.
This visit was essential to learn about and deepen some of the nuances of their work and what may be the future of our collaboration.
After this meeting, in Trusty, we have already begun to outline some improvements from the technological aspect and brainstormed ideas that could have a high social impact in this wonderful land.
Facilitating access to information from agribusiness supply chains can play a key role in the well-being of these communities; the fact that we are putting our souls into this with Trusty makes us really proud.
I close this first journal page with a smile on my face.
Being here in person after several months of working remotely allows me to shape the involvement of these people and touch the beauty of this project.
We will update in the coming days for new stages.
James
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