Meet the Farmers
Comfort Kumeah
Paul Ayepah
Juliana Fremah
Sakinatu Razak
Cecilia Appianim
Abena Frimpomaah
Comfort Kumeah lives in the small town of Mim in the Ashanti region of Ghana. She is a member of Kuapa Kokoo cocoa growers’ cooperative and was recently elected the national secretary for the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union and the chair of the Farmers Trust.
Comfort is a mother of five and a grandmother. She teaches at her local primary school as well as farming cocoa. Her classroom of kindergartners often exceeds 120 students. She works on the farm whenever she isn’t teaching, on Saturdays and during the school holidays.
“Before fair trade, we growers were cheated. People adjusted the scales. We got little money from the purchasing clerks and no bonuses. The growers’ welfare was neglected. I joined Kuapa Kokoo because I saw it was the only co-operative which could solve some of our problems – they trade without cheating, with the welfare of the growers at heart. There are many problems with poverty. During the lean season there is no money. Now there is a Credit Union we can borrow to keep our farms. The Annual General Meeting is also very good. Growers make their own decisions... and we are proud of our chocolate company Divine which gives us power and a Dividend.
In the first year the dividend was shared among farmers equally, all members received $1. Last year the farmers decided the Divine dividend should be used to purchase machetes. So 38,000 machetes were bought and distributed to members – there were durbars in some communities to celebrate and there was press and TV coverage of members receiving the machetes.”
Comfort Kumeah has visited UK for Fairtrade Fortnight, and to celebrate the first Decade of Divine. She also visited the US for the Valentine’s Day 2007 launch of Divine Chocolate Inc.
Paul Ayepah is 36 and a member of the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers’ cooperative in Ghana. As well as running his own farm, he has been elected as the Recorder of the Gyeduakese Kuapa Kokoo Society in the Asankragwa Area in the Western Region of Ghana.
Paul has two children – one at school, and the other still a baby. He has 12.6 acres of land which his wife Gladys helps him farm. On average they produce around 38 bags of cocoa a year. Apart from cocoa, he also grows foodstuffs like plantain and cassava. He has an oil-palm Paul Ayepah on his farmplantation and rears other animals like goats and sheep.
He has been a member of Kuapa Kokoo since 1999, and he was elected as Recorder the same year, and re-elected in 2003 and 2007. His role as Recorder means he is responsible for weighing and paying for the cocoa all the local Kuapa farmers bring to him. 48 farmers are currently bringing their cocoa to him and he encourages others to join Kuapa Kokoo too.
Paul says: “Before Kuapa Kokoo came here, buyers used to come and cheat us and say the wrong weight.”.
Now that he is Recorder local farmers are a lot happier. “They trust me. I was born here – they know how I am.
“They trust me with their money. I feel happy because it makes the farmers happy to get prompt payment, so I don’t have any problems with the farmers.
“May role is to educate the farmers about better care of their cocoa – if a farmer comes with inferior cocoa I will explain how the come back with better cocoa. The farmers need to spend the right time for fermenting and for drying, depending on the weather.”
In Paul’s village there is now a water well. “We used to fetch water from streams but it was not good water,” he says.
Paul Ayepah has tasted Divine and his message to chocolate lovers in the North is:
“Please buy more Fairtrade chocolate because we make good quality cocoa and we sell it to Divine. The right beans make good chocolate and we get money to develop our communities.”
Juliana Fremah lives in Amankwatia village. She is a cocoa farmer with 12 acres of cocoa trees, and a member of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative, which co-owns Divine Chocolate Ltd in the UK. Born on 10th February 1950, Juliana now has six children, and seven grandchildren. Her husband has his own 42 acre farm.
As well as tending to her farm daily - whether it be weeding, planting, or the long period of harvesting - she is also treasurer of her village society's womens' group, and looks after all her grandchildren, getting them dressed, fed and off to school!
She joined Kuapa Kokoo in 2000, and is very clear about what joining has meant to her. "Getting together to form a Women's Group, which Kuapa encourages us to do, meant we could get a Kuapa Credit loan, and use the money to plant secondary crops like Okro and Cassava. Money from these crops helps in between cocoa harvests. Since joining Kuapa we have been able to build our own house."
"If not for Kuapa, I would not have enough money to feed my family, or enough to sell all year round. Kuapa Kokoo has really helped me!"
What makes her happiest is knowing she can support her family. She also really enjoyed a special worship week she attended organised by Kuapa.
Her message to the UK "Thank you to all you in the UK who buy Fairtrade Divine and Dubble made from Kuapa Kokoo beans. Now I can look after my grandchildren. Please buy more and God Bless You!"
Sakinatu Razak lives in Aboabo Camp, a village in the Central Region of Ghana, with her five children. She is 32 and she and her father are members of Kuapa Kokoo. Sakinatu works on the farm, and belongs to her village Kuapa Women’s Group. “Cocoa farming is hard work,” she says, “but I have to do it.”
She has belonged to Kuapa Kokoo for five years, and she sees one of the biggest benefits as being able to access a loan from the Kuapa Kokoo Credit Union, which she has used to capitalise additional trading enterprises, such as selling fried fish and rice, to help cashflow in between harvests.
“I want to educate my children to the highest level,” she says – a priority for most cocoa farmers. She has two children in the village school, which was built with Fairtrade premiums. “The Kuapa Kokoo school is very good – the best in the area, and my children can now speak English,” she adds.
Her message to UK chocolate lovers is “Please buy more Divine chocolate, so I can get more money for my children’s future.”
"My name is Cecilia Appianim. I am 47 years old. I have three kids. One female, two male. My village is Asemtem in the Central Region.
Fairtrade has helped us a lot. Because of Fairtrade, women can come out boldly and take part in every event. Before it was not like that. Before we would stay at home and watch the men. And we would work with our husbands and they would take the money, put it in their pockets, and when it came time to buy food or pay school fees they would say the money is gone.
But Kuapa has opened our eyes to see that everything should be 50-50. So if a man has one vote a woman has one as well. If the men come together to make a decision then the women are there to take part as well. So now we are empowered and the men they can not cheat us again.
Today, as I am here, I am the national finance secretary of Kuapa Kokoo and also I am a village recorder. I buy the cocoa in my village. I show the farmers how much they will get paid, check their beans to make sure they are fine quality, and I make sure they know that the scale is free and they are not being cheated. I am the first woman in my village to be a recorder.
When I was elected only the men ran against men. But now that I am the recorder more people bring their cocoa to Kuapa because I tell the women and they tell their husbands and the women know how much Kuapa does for them so they bring us their cocoa.
Also because of Fairtrade we have some many projects for women. We make soap, tshirts, batik, we grow other food stuffs and sell in the market and then put some money into the credit union for hardship times or to pay our children's school fees. My appeal to the women in the UK is to support Fairtrade and to support Divine. Then we can get more premium to do even more projects for women in Ghana."
Abena Frimpomaah
“I am Abena Frimpomaah. I am 40 years old and have a six acre farm here in Mem-Manso. I have five children aged 20, 16, 13, 10, and 7 – they are all at school – the eldest is about to go to university in Accra to do a science degree. He would like to be a doctor.
I have been a member of Kuapa Kokoo for five years. I joined because Kuapa Kokoo was offering an education programme that gave me the skills to better look after my farm and grow more and better cocoa.
When I was at the AGM in Kumasi I tasted our Divine chocolate and it inspired me to work harder on my farm!
My dream is for my children to be educated and have jobs, and also to come back and look after me when I am old!”