Greetings from Nigeria

We just got back from our trip to Nigeria last night. It is amazing how fast two weeks go by when you are having fun. The kids got to spend time with their grandparents in Ekiti and Lagos and were spoiled rotten. My husband and I spent a good amount of our time traveling the interior roads to remote villages were the Shea trees grow. We had a wonderful time meeting with four major women's cooperatives located in two major shea producing areas in Nigeria. We spent time with them and got to see first hand the entire process that these women employ to extract shea butter from the shea nut. It is really quite amazing how ivory butter emerges from a thick brown paste. I was very impressed with these women who work hard and long hours to make a living in the rural areas. Their lives are hard and for all their efforts, the financial returns are barely enough for them to provide a decent living for themselves and their families.

I (center) have my arms around Vera (Left) and Salome (right).These ladies have worked tirelessly to organize the local women into cooperatives

We are in the process of formalizing agreements to work with these local cooperatives to ensure that they make a fair wage for all their labor. We will also be involved providing training on the best practices for producing shea butter that meets international standards. We will also assist in providing appropriate technology to mechanize the more labor intensive steps involved in the Shea butter production process.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing stories and pictures from our trip.

It's great to be back.