Thank you for Supporting Poverty Campaign

With the Thank You For Supporting Poverty campaign Africa in Motion brings the stories of people who are behind one of your favourite snacks – chocolate.

It is fair to say that the cocoa industry is in dire need of an economic transformation. Despite decades of sustainability programs, voluntary action, and well-intended promises by the chocolate industry and policy makers, cocoa farmers are still confronted with issues such as poverty, child labor, and deforestation. The industry is overshooting beyond our planetary boundaries while falling short on providing cocoa producers with a human right such as a living income.

As consumers, we often feel powerless when it comes to such abstract and big issues and thus tend to continue with business as usual. At the heart of most challenges within the cocoa industry lies severe poverty, upholding many of the other afore mentioned issues. The current consumer landscape seemingly facilitates the sheer inequality that hinders the improvement of the system by for instance paying prices that do not reflect the true costs of production. By bringing the stories behind your chocolate bar, we hope to inspire you to rethink your role as a consumer.

This photo campaign, with photos by Patrick Diagou, was created in Agboville, a small village in the Ivory Coast (West-Africa). A pivotal aspect of this campaign is that it traces its origins to the very root of the cocoa industry, unveiling the stories of the people behind the big, aforementioned challenges. This campaign gives us a glimpse of what happens during the process of making chocolate, and hopefully opens your eyes to the realities behind the sweetness that chocolate brings.

Thank you for taking the time to go through the stories.

You can still register for one or more events for the Chocolate for Everyone Week below.