Olowo-n’djo Tchala and Alaffia were featured in the alumni section of the Summer 2007 edition of the “UC Davis Magazine”. Read the full article

Olowo-n’djo Tchala, by Anna Hennings
Occupation: Founder of Alaffia Sustainable Skin Care
From Africa to the US: Olowo-n’djo Tchala ‘04 grew up in poverty in Togo with his seven brothers and sisters, collecting the nuts of wild shea trees to pay for school supplies and clothes. Many years later, Tchala fell in love with Peace Corps volunteer and UC Davis student Rose Hyde, who is now his wife. In 1998, the two traveled back to the United States and continued their education at UC Davis. Six years later, despite having immigrated with only a sixth-grade education, Tchala graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in sociology-organizational studies and started a fair trade shea butter cooperative that supports the community in which he was raised.
Fair trade skin care: Tchala hires mostly women to work for his Alaffia/Agbanga Cooperative in central Togo, giving them an opportunity to benefit from their shea butter-making knowledge and to feel empowered. The also earn a fair, livable wage and health benefits by handcrafting shea butter, specialty oils and extracts from the area’s wild shea trees. It’s a process that takes many arduous hours: an estimated 20-30 to handcraft a single kilogram of shea butter. The raw material is then shipped to Tchala’s company, Alaffia Sustainable Skin Care in Olympia, Wash., where Tchala and his wife, Rose, and other Alaffia employees repackage the shea butter and formulate creams, lotions and soaps according to organic and fair trade guidelines.
Community empowerment: Alaffia contributes 10% of its total sales to community enhancement projects in Togo, already raising over $400,000. The money has provided school supplies and uniforms, school building repairs, prenatal care and reforestation plantings. One of their most effective efforts was the donation of hundreds of bicycles that allow children to travel five to 10 miles to their local schools. For more information about Tchala’s work, visit www.alaffia.com.
“My basic needs are met. I have food. I have a roof over my head. I think that the only thing I have left is help for other people.”

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