Who we are
CABOZ Action CH is a Swiss non-profit association founded in 2012. All our projects are developed, implemented and followed up locally by our Ivorian partner association CABOZ Action Côte d’Ivoire.
Our purpose
Mission : To help improve the living conditions of the village communities of the Ivorian cocoa-producers through funding and implementing projects with a focus on health, access to drinking water, education, empowerment of women and local communities, and rural income-generating activities.
Vision : The Ivorian cocoa-producers and their families can live in dignity and feel empowered to take the development of their local communities into their own hands. We support them in this using a ‘hybrid’ approach: working with the social entreprise, CABOZ {link}, in making the local cocoa trade more sustainable, and implementing social projects with our local project manager.
Our local partners
CABOZ Action Côte d’Ivoire : our Ivorian partner association was founded in 2014 in Côte d’Ivoire to make it easier to manage our projects locally and to get local members involved. We have two full-time employees locally, Lydie Kla und Fulbert Brou, who implement our projects under the supervision of Déde Beugre (see bottom of page).
CABOZ : we work mainly in the regions where the company CABOZ buys its cocoa and can thus benefit from the synergies between its commercial activities and our social projects. CABOZ provides office and logistic support, and helps in finding local contacts through its employees, many of whom live in the villages.
Important : The association CABOZ Action is a separate legal entity from the company CABOZ and independent in its decision-making. Currently CABOZ is not in a position to fund our projects directly.
CABOZ Action Committee in Switzerland
The CABOZ Action committee in Switzerland focuses on obtaining funding for our social projects. Committee members work almost exclusively on a voluntary basis.
Silvia Dingwall
lives near Baden, Switzerland
President and co-founder of CABOZ Action and member of the board of CABOZ plc.
Silvia works freelance as an editor, translator and course leader in environmental research. She is also a breathing therapist.
Monnaut Joel Bohon Diet
lives in Zurich, Switzerland
Vice-president and co-founder of CABOZ Action.
Joel grew up in a cocoa-farming region in Côte d’Ivoire and today works as a nursing assistant in Zürich.
Kathrin Heitz-Tokpa
lives in Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire
Committee member and president of CABOZ Action Côte d’Ivoire.
Kathrin is a social anthropologist and works as a programme coordinator at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire.
Esther Pérez-Weber
lives in Wald ZH, Switzerland
Committee Member
Esther Pérez works in the administration/accounting department of a medium-sized architectural firm in Zurich. In her spare time, Esther and her sister Yvonne run a studio with fabrics from Côte d’Ivoire, which they sew into unique fashion pieces: http://sapecommejamais.ch
Marie-Louise Nussbaumer
lives near Baden, Switzerland
Committee Member
She is today retired and active as a volunteer, among other things as SP party president in Obersiggenthal. She was for many years a member of the Aargau Grand Council and of the Obersiggenthal Municipal Council. She worked in adult education and journalism.
Braida Thom
lives in Zürich, Switzerland
Committee Member
Braida is an agricultural scientist and works as a project manager and scientific assistant at ETH Zurich. She is coordinating CABOZ Action’s water projects.
Nathalie Windlin
lives in Zurich, Switzerland
Committee Member
Nathalie is an agronomist and works at Bio Suisse on the further development of the guidelines for tropical crops.
Jey Wegner
lives in Berlin, Germany
Committee Member
Jey is a social impact and media consultant & researcher – passionate about building a more equitable international development space.
Markus Berwert
lives in Lungern, Canton Obwalden
Treasurer
Markus was Managing Director of the Central Swiss Football Association until the end of July 2023 and is currently serving as its President, partly on a voluntary basis. Markus enjoys spending the extra free time he has had since retirement on sports – more passively than actively – including bowling and hiking.
CABOZ Action Côte d’Ivoire
Local project management
Kathrin Heitz-Tokpa
lives in Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire
President
Kathrin is a social anthropologist and works as a programme coordinator at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire.
Lydie Kla
lives near Duekoué
Project manager
Lydie Kla is the CABOZ Action project manager in the Duékoué region. She worked as a local facilitator for the 2018/19 TRECC Pilot Project (Youth Farmer Field Schools) and previously gained experience with “Save the Children” and the “International Rescue Committee”.
Fulbert Brou
lives near Soubré
Project manager
Fulbert Brou is the CABOZ Action project manager in the Soubré region. He worked as a local facilitator for the 2018/19 TRECC Pilot Project (Youth Farmer Field Schools) and previously in agriculture near Soubré.
Déde Beugre
lives in Soubré
Consultant and coach for CABOZ Action
Déde Beugre works part-time as a consultant for CABOZ Action and as the supervisor of Lydie and Fulbert. He played a leading role in setting up the TRECC Pilot Project (Youth Farmer Field Schools) in 2018, and has since been responsible for CABOZ projects run by the cooperative SCOPACI. Previously he worked as a lead trainer for EDE Consulting West Africa.
Acknowledgements
Our grateful thanks to our sponsors. In particular we would like to thank:
Gemeinde Obersiggenthal, the Swiss NGO Aqua Pura, the Jacobs Foundation and Canton Basel-Stadt.
Make a donation
CABOZ Action
IBAN: CH96 0839 0031 7536 1000 0
BIC (SWIFT-Code): ABSOCH22
Hermetschloostrasse 70, 8048 Zürich
Please note donations to CABOZ Action are tax-deductible in most Swiss cantons.
Contact
Silvia Dingwall
President CABOZ Action
Sternenstrasse 7, 5415 Nussbaumen
Tel: +41 79 564 56 37
E-Mail: silvia.dingwall@cabozaction.org
We thank our long-term partners: 