Photo courtesy: Alaffia

– Excellent report on Olympia’s Alaffia by Craig Sailor, The Tacoma News Tribune:
“There’s a lot of buzz about socially responsible consumerism in the marketplace. Olympia-based natural beauty products company Alaffia does more than write checks to charities.

Alaffia owner Olowo-n’djo Tchala likes to call his company a social movement.

To that end, he brought three Togo-based employees to Whole Foods Market Chambers Bay on Tuesday [March 7] to talk about the company’s business practices and community empowerment programs.

It was a stop on the ‘Alaffia Ladies of Togo Tour.'”
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– About Alaffia
“Alaffia was founded in 2004 to alleviate poverty and empower communities in West Africa through the fair trade of shea butter and other indigenous resources. Fair trade is the fundamental foundation of our organization, which is comprised of the Alaffia Shea Butter Cooperative in Sokodé, Togo, the Alaffia Coconut Cooperative in Klouvi-Donnou, Togo, and Alaffia in Olympia, Washington USA. Our cooperatives handcraft indigenous raw ingredients; the Alaffia team in Olympia creates the finished products. Proceeds from the sales of these products are returned to communities in Togo, West Africa, to fund community empowerment & gender equality projects.”
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