The Alaffia Blog is a collection of fair trade and shea butter news clippings, personal reflections, Alaffia profiles and more. We welcome your comments and feedback!
Check back regularly to read what's happening at Alaffia and in the world of fair trade and shea butter.
When a group of women asked the Women’s Development Agency in Tamale, in Northern Ghana, for help in setting up their own business, they were each loaned about £26 from Comic Relief funds.
The pooled their resources to form a shea butter co-operative. Within two years they had paid back their loan and are looking to expand.
By LaMont Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Withering heat, high humidity, sea water and chlorine are four good reasons to pay more attention to your hair this summer.
While the health of your locks can suffer in winter because of indoor-outdoor temperature changes and cold, chafing winds, summer’s drying heat, chlorinated pools and salty ocean water are much more unforgiving.
“We’re outside more in the summer, so your hair is exposed to more of the outside elements. That’s why you need to take special care,” said Cynthia Winston, celeb hairstylist and co-owner of Van Michael Miami, an Aveda concept salon in South Beach.
Source: www.targetwomen.com
Shea butter products are popularly used by women all over the world. Soaps, lotions, moisturizers and other products made from pure shea butter offer the soothing, protecting and healing properties of this natural product. Shea butter has been used by the Africans to heal ailments of the skin and scalp. Traditionally, shea butter is used to treat dry skin, discoloration on the skin and to relieve pain and swelling of arthritis. What exactly is shea butter? Find out the benefits of shea butter products.
developed by Dr. Judith Carney and Marlene Elias
Department of Geography, with the support of the GRCA
Source: UCLA Gloablization Research Center
What does a Beverly Hills make-up counter have in common with West African women?
Many exclusive lines of cosmetics use products made from African shea butter, or karité, for “natural” skin moisturizers, lip balms, and eye creams. The nut of shea butter comes from trees found solely in the West African savanna. For centuries African women have collected the nuts and turned them into shea butter to help their bodies endure the harsh, dry Sahelian climate. In recent years the benefits of shea have become more widely known. It now forms a crucial ingredient of the “natural products” cosmetics marketed by brands such as The Body Shop [and Alaffia]. The growing demand for shea butter in the West is evident in the West African country, Burkina Faso, where karité now ranks third in exports.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and United-Nations affiliates have stepped in to help Burkina’s female producers improve their economic returns from shea butter. Their efforts focus on strengthening women’s access rights to the valuable nuts while sustaining the trees from over-exploitation. Will the shea butter trade bring these types of transformations to the Sahel’s destitute? A focus on the commodity chains that link women in Beverly Hills with those in Burkina Faso will reveal the capability of development projects to effect gender equity and fair trade in this period of contemporary globalization.
“NEW YORK — Many of us make repeated vows to simplify our lives and one place to start is with beauty routines. Instead of dozens of creams and lotions with names too difficult to pronounce, how about using the calm, peaceful-sounding chamomile and tea tree oils?”
Empowerment Alliance: In our efforts to empower our communities, we have dedicated 10% of our sales to fund community enhancement programs in West Africa & locally in Washington State.
Fair Trade Federation: We are active members of the Fair Trade Federation and operate our organization based on the principles of Fair Trade and organic guidelines.
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