Soltan Ana, EMREI 193

The "Cocoa for Schools" initiative aims to enhance the lives of thousands of cocoa farmers
and their families in the Mbeya districts of Kyela, Busokelo, and Rungwe. Investing in education is
a big element of the plan since it's proven to be the most effective method to get out of poverty, as
Fons Maex believes that “education is the only way out of poverty”. After a trip to Tanzania
in 2010, Kim's Chocolate founder Fons Maex decided to start "Cocoa for Schools" with a single act
of kindness.
When he met with the cocoa farmers, he was surprised by the massive challenges they faced;
despite the fact that the Tanzanian climate is ideal for cultivation, the farmers and their community,
due to a lack of resources and knowledge, lived in severe poverty. He discovered that the majority of
children didn’t have enough materials necessary for studying or even classrooms for lectures, lack of
adequate hygiene measures, limited water supplies, no toilets, no electricity, all of these impacting
their capacity to learn. Maex, who grew up in poverty, realized that knowledge and education were
the only ways out, thus the first steps needed to be done were to create a solid educational
infrastructure throughout the region. Their goal is to build, complete, or rehabilitate roughly 2100
classrooms and teacher's offices during the next 10-12 years, as well as provide over 430.000 school
textbooks. Aside from education, the project helps farmers in a variety of ways, such as teaching
farming practices, delivering fresh cocoa seedlings, and supplying solar energy generators.
In my opinion the right thing that they did was the inclusion of local communities in the
solving of these problems, as they are the ones who are closer to its causes and may provide the
most reliable solutions. This example demonstrates how the company realizes that individuals
closest to the problem may best contribute in its resolution so it is best to collaborate and cooperate
with them in order to solve social problems. Another positive aspect from this case is the fact that
they are giving back to those communities through some learning programs. To solve the social
injustices, businesses will have to share some of their power with communities and create an
environment in which impacted stakeholders can meaningfully co-design and co-create necessary
innovations and interventions to drive change forward together through knowledge-sharing.
Additionally, we can observe that on the packaging of some of Bucuria’s chocolate bars is
written that it was made in Belgium by Kim's Chocolate, which means that by purchasing this
product you can support the cacao for school project because for every metric ton of cocoa beans
they are buying, a levy is put aside and then transferred 100% into the funds for the project, which
shows a great example of social responsibility.