For their March issue, Vegetarian Times is featuring several African sourced products, including Alaffia’s Kola Ginger & Shea Daily Fortifying Conditioner.  From the feature: “To help turn the tide against poverty and environmental devastation in Africa, these fair traders are sustainably tapping into the continent’s bounty of lavishly moisturizing shea butter and other beautifying botanicals….Supplied with shea butter sustainably extracted by a women’s cooperative in Togo, Alaffia gives 10 percent of sales back to the community by funding medical and educational projects. Try: Kola, Ginger & Shea Daily Fortifying Conditioner.”

In 2009, we introduced our Kola, Ginger and Shea products to showcase two new African ingredients: kola nut and African ginger. Kola is native to West Africa and contains high amounts of caffeine and other antioxidants. Clinical trials are showing that caffeine can help reduce hair loss, and it also has natural skin firming properties. West African ginger is highly concentrated and stimulates circulation in the skin and scalp.

Thank you to Vegetarian Times for featuring Alaffia, and helping to bring awareness of how fair trade of indigenous resources can benefit communities across the world. If you want to read more about fair trade, we encourage you to visit our recently updated fair trade page.

Best body lotion

Alaffia Shea and Red Palm Nurturing Body Lotion
The Alaffia line features fair trade-certified shea butter from a West African coop, that is combined with virgin coconut oil and papaya leaf extract to create a natural emollient that soothes and moisturizes the entire body—and all skin types. “Totally refreshing. Light yet nourishing, like a tropical drink for your whole body.”

Find this product at your local natural foods store or our online shop.

Olowo-n’djo Tchala
February 16th, 2010

Alaffia: Empowering Women and Preserving Cultural Knowledge in West Africa through the Fair Trade of Handcrafted Shea Butter.

In 2003, my wife and I founded Alaffia with the sole objective of using traditional knowledge to empower individuals and communities in West Africa. We formulate skin care products with shea butter handcrafted by our women’s cooperative in Togo. Sales from these products provide direct economic opportunities for the most disadvantaged women in central Togo and also fund community empowerment projects in our local communities.

In late 2008, due to the global economic slowdown, we created EveryDay Shea in order to continue employing the 300 Alaffia Cooperative members in Togo. The Alaffia Cooperative is the first stable employment these women have ever had, and for the past five years they and their families have relied on the income they receive from the cooperative. While the economic slowdown is painful to many families in the West, it is even more difficult for individuals and families in poorer countries who already live on the edge.

EveryDay Shea is our value line of fair trade certified 32 oz shea butter body and hair care products that retail under $14. Our nationwide introduction of EveryDay Shea in January 2009 was made successful by the support of Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods Market is our largest customer and their willingness to retail EveryDay Shea had an immediate impact on our shea butter cooperative. The demand for shea butter that it created enabled us to maintain membership, and we even added members for the first time in five years. In May 2009, we added four experienced shea butter crafters, and in July, we recruited an additional five young members.

To me personally, the addition of the five young women to the cooperative is the most meaningful achievement of EveryDay Shea. Adding young people to the cooperative means that they will learn traditional knowledge and crafts, which are vanishing throughout the West African savanna. Most young people in our communities no longer value traditions and cultural knowledge due to the impact of economic and cultural globalization. I strongly believe that maintaining traditional crafting is not only sustainable, but is the greatest opportunity that African communities have in getting out of poverty.

For instance, like the majority of African women born prior to 1960, my mother cannot read or write in any western languages. Therefore, my mother and her peers are excluded from the economic system. However, if we consider their traditional crafting knowledge as economically valuable, then their skills are useful to the system. Valuing the skills of these women allows them to provide for their families, which provides a sense of self independence as they are no longer forced to rely on outside aid for survival. Furthermore, African states are not industrialized. In fact, they should not become industrialized in the model of the United States, Europe, and now Asia. The only sensible option for us is to focus on our traditional knowledge and indigenous resources embedded with moral trade practices. This paradigm can only be realized with a distribution platform for these traditional crafts and resources. In Alaffia’s case, Whole Food Market provides an important opportunity by making our traditionally based products available to the public.

My experience being born and raised in abject poverty in central Togo and my interactions with various societies around the world have convinced me that reducing poverty and bringing about gender equality in West Africa can only be achieved through trading African resources at fair value. The impact of EveryDay Shea, from the response of our customers in the United States to the effect on our cooperative in Togo, strengthens my conviction that it is possible for poor communities to become self sustaining without the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Dear: Olowo-n’djo and Rose

Sincerely, Jennifer Pantoja

Dear Olowo-n’djo and Rose
Hi, my name is Titu Isaac. I came from Ethiopia. I have been in the U.S. for a year and a half. When I grow up I want to be a nurse and help my country.
Thank you for coming and sharing about Togo and your life. I t was good to see how you have worked hard to get here. It was surprising that one shea nut is 25% oil. I think because the shea nut has so much oil, it makes it possible to make strong and valuable lotions.
I’m glad that you’re helping pregnant ladies to be able to deliver their babies safely. It made me sad to hear 1 out of 16 women die during childbirth in Togo, and it made me happy to know that you are helping them. There are some people who are helping the young girls in Ethiopia that have a condition called Fistula which affects their bladder; this is because they have become pregnant when they were too young. I would like to work with them someday. These people are American’s and I want the Ethiopian girls to be helped by Ethiopian people too. It is frustrating to always be helped by people from other countries because social traditions and behaviors make getting along, and feeling comfortable sometimes very difficult. In the situation of Fistula if they are being helped by other Ethiopian the girls who have this problem will not be shamed because Ethiopians know the culture and understand the situation of what’s going on. Also, if Ethiopians help Ethiopian the indigenous culture can survive, but (if) foreigners are helping only, the country will become more like the helping country, which if it’s the U.S. will mean westernized. I also don’t want to forget my country. Remembering my country is important to me because it is where I come from when I grew up, where my brother are and my neighbors who love me.
I have to know who I am and where I come from because everyday I have strength to do what I need to do. If I have know where I come from know what my dreams are, and I have strength to make from happen. If I don’t forget my country I will always have a place I know that I belong to.
I hope that you will visit us again
May God be with you!!

Dear Olowo-n’djo and Rose

My name is Rosalba Perez, and I am 15 years old. I am in 9th grade the year in Stanwood High School. I have been living in the U.S.A. for four and a half years. I will tell you more about me so you can get to know me. I like to help others and do sports. I love to cook and bake. One of my goals this year is to later in life to build a place where families can live when they don’t have a place to live. I want to become an teacher also. Well, now that you know some things about me you might have an idea of what I like the most about your presentation. First of all, I want to thank you both for coming to our class and to our school to give us a piece of your history. I think that is really cool and unique what you do to help others. I think Rose that you are cool and nice because you have been supporting Olowo-n’djo for many years. I appreciate how you work together and support each other.
Well, onto a different topic one of the many things you do to help others is how you help kids by providing them with supplies and a place to learn. I think education is one of the most important opportunities and privileges in your life and by helping the children you’re making a new world because the kids are the ones that are going to change (the) world we live in. By your helping them kids you’re making a new piece of the world. I really love what you do! I wish one day I can be like you one day. I would love it if you would invite me to volunteer in your shop one day.
Love,
Rosalina

Natural Solutions Magazine also awarded Alaffia for Best Community Involvement in the 2008 Beauty With a Conscience Awards.

February 1, 2010- The Institute for Marektecology (IMO) awards Fair for Life Fair Trade certification to Alaffia, dba Everyday Shea, makers of cosmetic products formulated with a base of Fair Trade Shea Butter. Fair for Life Fair Trade certification is an independent verification of eco- and social- marketing claims.

Alaffia was founded by a native of Togo, Olowo-n’djo Tchala, who says “Fair Trade enables communities in Africa to become self sustaining. I grew up in poverty in Togo, and I feel morally responsible to dedicate my life towards empowering West African communities. Handcrafted Shea Butter from wild shea trees is a unique renewable resource that if traded fairly can empower individuals and communities in West Africa. This is why we founded the Alaffia/Agbanga Shea Butter Cooperative in Togo and later Alaffia in North America – to help bring economic and gender empowerment to communities in Togo. Fair for Life Fair Trade certification is important to us, as it independently verifies our empowerment efforts and also helps broaden Fair Trade awareness within our African and North American communities.”

Fair for Life was developed as an alternative Fair Trade Certification Program by the Swiss Bio-Foundation, in cooperation with IMO, in 2006. Since then, Fair for Life Social & Fair Trade certification has gained rapid acceptance in worldwide markets, as it offers many complimentary benefits to existing Fair Trade systems. One of these key benefits is transparency. Fair for Life Fair Trade certification transparently verifies fair trade production and trade, as it publishes the results of certification on its website at www.fairforlife.net. During certification, operators are rated on their performance in areas such as trade relations, health and safety, equal treatment and opportunity, social benefits, and environmental issues.

To see how Alaffia and other certified companies scored, visit their “Operator Profile”. There you will see that Alaffia USA produces skin care products made primarily from ingredients from Alaffia Togo, a co-operative supporting local communities and shea nut collectors through community projects, paying shea nut collectors above market value, and employing women year-round in shea butter production. When buyers were not ready to pay above market price for shea butter, supporting fair trade wages, Alaffia USA was established to produce shea butter skin care products. Over the years, additional ingredients have been added to production in Togo, subsequently expanding the line of skin care products made in the US. This makes the co-op and finishing facility in the US interdependent, supporting the Togo community in reforestation projects, health care of pregnant mothers and sending donated bikes from the US to encourage rural children to remain in school.

To learn more about IMO, visit, www.FairforLife.net or www.IMO.ch

Our Fair Trade Certified Neem and Shea Shampoo begins with an aqueous infusion of neem dried leaves. The gentle African Black Soap base is rich in our unrefined shea butter, effectively cleansing and moisturizing hair, while essential oils of rosemary, lavender, and tea tree refresh and balance dry, flaky scalps. Neem is also known to regulate oil production, making it suitable for oily scalps as well.

Try our Neem and Shea Butter Scalp Recovery Shampoo and corresponding conditioner for soft, manageable hair and a healthy, balanced scalp.

The Moisturizing Conditioner leaves hair soft, shiny and manageable while moisturizing and smoothing the scalp and hair shaft. Shea leaf extract provides protection from damaging free radicals to promote health and vitality of hair and scalp.

Available in naturally scented Lavender or Vanilla-Mint, this latest addition to our EveryDay Shea line is an exceptional value. With a convenient pump-top each 32 ounce bottle has a suggested retail price of $13.99.

Both products meet Alaffia’s exceptional ingredient policies:

• Synthetic Fragrance free
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate free
• Paraben free

For more information about EveryDay Shea please visit everydayshea.com. There you can read more about our Social and Fair Trade Certified shea butter and the empowerment projects that 10% of all sales go to support.

To locate an Alaffia/EveryDay Shea retailer near you please click here.

-Matsya Siosal, Contributing Writer

Year after year customers across the country tell us that our Virgin Coconut Cream is one of their favorites. This ultra-rich, buttery body cream is filled with our handcrafted, unrefined Virgin Coconut Oil and Cocoa Butter. The result is a cream that leaves your skin soft, protected and smelling subtly of coconut and lemongrass. Virgin, or unrefined coconut oil is an important food product for people around the globe and can be used head to toe for effective moisturizing of hair, face, and body.

Virgin Coconut Oil promotes and maintains firmness in the skin and can reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It also encourages healing and repair of the skin and can even make skin smoother and more evenly textured by removing the outer layer of dead skin cells. We extract our Virgin Coconut Oil by hand at our cooperative in Togo, West Africa from fresh coconuts grown organically on small farms. We use our Virgin Coconut Oil in its natural, unrefined state for maximum effectiveness.

Antioxidant properties of unrefined Coconut Oil
Virgin Coconut Oil is high in natural antioxidants, which fight the formation and detrimental action of free radicals. Free radicals damage skin cells and lead to skin aging and cancer. The antioxidants in Virgin Coconut Oil not only prevent free radicals from forming in the oil (which gives the oil and products that contain it a longer shelf life), but also help protect against free-radicals that the skin is exposed to. It is important to avoid refined coconut oil as it has been stripped of natural antioxidants and is highly prone to free-radical generation.

For more information about our coconut oil please click here.

~ Matsya Siosal, Contributing Writer