Oy! visits to the Women's Shea Butter Project in North Ghana - 07 September 2010
Oy! Visit to Ghana
Organic, fairly traded Shea Butter: Women’s Co-operative Northern Ghana
Green People uses organic shea butter in many of its natural skin care products including the Oy! Cleanse and Moisturise and Soft Glow Gradual Tan.
This summer Sandra our cover girl for Oy! had the amazing opportunity to go to Ghana and visit the Women’s Co-operative, a fairly traded project that provides employment, a fair wage and good working conditions for a community of 600 women who make and supply us with our gorgeous Shea butter!
Here’s a quick look at where our lovely Shea butter comes from: the handmade, age-old traditional methods in Ghana and a fascinating production process that does NOT use chemicals or solvents.
How it’s made! Direct from tree to butter to skin
It’s really basic and straightforward: Firstly, the nuts are gathered by hand from around the base of the Karite trees.
The nuts are left in the sun to dry –allowing for the natural oils to be produced. The nuts are then ground then roasted outside over an open flame in a large clay pot.
The roasted ground nuts go through a simple milling process where the oil is squeezed from the nuts to make a dark brown creamy liquid - very similar to melted chocolate! In fact, good quality Shea butter actually smells of chocolate!
One of the most essential aspects of producing excellent quality Shea butter is kneading it by hand for up to two hours! That’s really tough on the arm muscles! A group of women take turns while they have a chat and sing to add their own touch of magic to this miracle beauty ingredient.
Shea butter is an excellent moisturizer as it gets to work deep in the skin helping to heal cracked, dry and damaged skin. Shea butter also offers UV protection against sunburn and has strong anti-inflammatory properties, perfect for teenage skin types!
Best of all Shea butter leaves your skin feeling incredibly soft and smooth. All those fantastic results from one gorgeous, natural, fair trade product! Now that really is magic!
The beauty of the Women’s Shea Butter Project:
“To me, the miracle of shea butter is not just the fact that it is nature’s very own super cosmetic but that this simple product is able to shape the lives of over 200 women in the rural regions of North Ghana who harvest and process organic shea butter, on a fair trade basis.”Georgina Koomson, project founder of the Women’s Shea Butter Project, North Ghana
These Ghanian communities are usually dominated by men, but, these women working with the project are able to earn enough money to support their families, send their children to school and in some instances, build their own homes. In the true spirit of fair trade a proportion of the profit is re-invested back into the community. As a result of this project, there is now a crèche and a school for the children and more sophisticated production facilities. Not forgetting a renewed sense of pride, dignity and independence – something that money cannot buy!
“As we see a growing interest in products which are not just organic but are fairly traded, we know that this miracle ingredient really does provide a touch of magic and genuine opportunity to our beautiful ladies in North Ghana.” Georgina Koomson, project founder of the Women’s Shea Butter Project, North Ghana
Sandra also spent two weeks volunteering in an orphanage; teaching art and spending time with the children there. The volunteer work gave her a real sense of tough lives of many of the children in Ghana and the difference Green People make to the children of the women who work in the Women’s Shea Butter Project.