It is with great sadness that we announce the loss of our long-standing colleague, Déde Beugre, who died on 18. February after a long illness. He was responsible for selecting our facilitators, as well as for setting up the AVEC/AGR scheme (savings groups and income-generating activities) in nearly 50 cocoa villages. Our thoughts are with the team in Côte d’Ivoire and his family. He will be greatly missed as a gifted communicator and great team player.

The installation of the new drinking-water system with a foot pump in Godèkro is almost complete. Once again, we were able to rely on the company CK Entreprise to find water at a depth of 70 metres during the second drilling, to the delight of the village population. The approximately 1000 inhabitants in the village, who currently draw their drinking water from simple draw wells, will soon be able to use the foot pump to obtain clean drinking water. They plan to pay a small amount for the water so that they have savings in case the pump needs to be repaired. A water committee will manage the whole system in consultation with CABOZ Action staff.

The planning for our new project to produce biogas to replace wood as a fuel for cooking is in full swing. We have engaged the Ivorian biogas company Lono (lonoci.com) for this purpose. The biogas plant is being realised in Walebo in the Nawa region, where an employee of the SCOPACI cooperative, with whom we work, runs a pig farm with around 70 animals. The plant will be operated primarily with manure and other organic waste (including cocoa shells) from local agriculture. It converts all types of green waste (liquid and solid) into cooking gas and liquid fertiliser. With just 5 kg of waste per day, it’s possible to produce enough biogas to cook for around 2 hours and 50 litres of fertiliser. The gas will primarily be used by a school canteen in the village to prepare lunch for 600 pupils, but also by the local population.

Further clarifications and additional funds are still required (we already have CHF 10’000 of a total of CHF 15’000). The aim is to be able to start setting up the project this year. 

Our 12^th Annual General Meeting took place on 6 May at 6 pm in CABOZ’s office in Altstetten. Participants shared experiences from the CABOZ Action trip to Côte d’Ivoire in February during which multiple projects in the cocoa villages were visited (see the March Newsletter).

The dramatic increases in prices for cocoa on the world market have received much media attention. Sadly, these increases have not been passed on to Ivorian cocoa farmers because the Ivorian government fixed the price for cocoa at the start of the harvest last October. Changes in the weather and the spread of diseases resulted in a terrible harvest. Farmers had much less cocoa to sell, which has meant that poverty in the cocoa villages has become more widespread and the risk of child labour has increased.

Nearly 1500 villagers, of whom over 50% are women, have joined CABOZ Action’s Savings and Loans groups (AVECs) and are receiving regular coaching in running small businesses to supplement their incomes. We saw several examples in the villages we visited in February, such as growing and processing vegetables like cassava to running a local food or fuel shop.

Our staff have surveyed nearly 1400 families in the villages where we work to identify those where child labour could be a risk. If some or all of the children are not going to school, our two supervisors, Lydie and Fulbert, discuss possible solutions with them, such as setting up a school fund in the local AVEC or getting a birth certificate for the children.

Lack of school canteens makes it difficult for children who live far away to attend school. This is why we are keen to build more. So far we have sponsored three, and inaugurated the newest one in Flampleau in February (see March Newsletter).

It was a cold day and the hot chocolate we were selling at the CABOZ Action stand at the SchoggiFestival proved popular. The drink is made from cocoa powder produced by the Ivorian chocolate manufacturer Tafissa from local cocoa beans, some of which come from SCOPACI, the co-operative that CABOZ works with.

We were able to visit the factory in San Pedro during our trip in February and were pleased to see Tafissa products in the hotels and supermarkets we went to.

On 10 February les Eléphants, as the Ivorian national football team is popularly called, won the Africa Cup of Nations. When our travel group arrived on 14 February, the country was still celebrating and we were treated to three mini football matches in the cocoa villages. Fortunately, we were prepared, and our luggage included over 30 Kg of donated football equipment, which has since been distributed in four different villages. Many thanks to the different Swiss clubs that contributed.