BEAUTY. EQUALITY.
EMPOWERMENT.
Alaffia is a social enterprise on a mission to invest in a more equitable future. Together, we’re cultivating beauty, equality and empowerment in West Africa and around the globe.
Why we’re here
Alaffia is built on a philosophy of fair trade defined by paying a fair local price or wage, offering equal employment opportunities, engaging in environmentally sustainable practices, providing healthy and safe working conditions, being open to public accountability and reducing the number of middlemen from supplier to consumer.
How it works
Our women’s cooperatives in West Africa handcraft indigenous raw ingredients then the Alaffia team in Olympia, Washington creates the finished products. Alaffia returns the proceeds from the sale of these products to our communities to fund community empowerment and gender equality projects.
A calling to do good
Founder & CEO, Olowo-n’djo Tchala, was compelled to fight the injustices he faced and witnessed growing up in a small village in West Africa, including gender inequality and poverty,
through sustainable health care, education and environmental initiatives. He founded Alaffia
with Prairie Rose Hyde in 2003.
FAIR TRADE,
TRADITIONALLY CRAFTED
The women in our Alaffia Village co-op in
Togo keep West African traditions alive by indigenously crafting our unrefined “raw”
shea butter and African black soap.
AWARD-WINNING,
NATURAL BEAUTY &
GROOMING COLLECTIONS
Our natural skin and hair care and methods are rooted in ancient African tradition. Products are cruelty-free, without sulfates, parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, petrolatum or synthetic coloring.
Watch Alaffia on CNN
Watch our Founder & CEO Olowo-n’djo Tchala on CNN, where he gives the ultimate tourof our women-led cooperatives. This bird’s eye view showcases our fair tradecrafting facilities in West Africa as well as our Olympia WA headquarters.
ALAFFIA’s
EMPOWERMENT PROJECTS
When you choose our handcrafted skin and hair care, you join us in empowering women and families in West Africa. We measure our success by our social impact.
