Aduna brings African superfoods from village to shelf, creating sustainable livelihoods for producers. Through our baobab fruit supply chain, over 2,300 women in Upper East Ghana and Centre-Sud Burkina Faso are receiving sustainable incomes. Here is the story of one of these women, Baby Guraseh.
Widow. 5 kids. Baobab Producer, Farmer and Trader. Kayilo, Ghana.
"I’ve been farming all my life. I was born into it so once I married, I asked for my piece of land and I have been farming ever since. I think using fertilizers is actually not good for the land in the long term. Cutting down trees is also not helpful for the land.
The baobab tree is an amazing gift. I cook the leaves for food, make biscuits and other products from the powder and you can even crush the seeds for oil. In the past we didn’t bother selling baobab because we couldn’t make money from it. When you don’t have money, you can’t be happy because nothing goes on. I used to live in a wooden shack but now I have built my own home with aluminum roofing and cement blocks. Today, we, the women of this community really love each other. We don’t gossip about one another. If we need to pay school fees, we just tap into our savings at the cooperative."
Interview and photographs by Nana Kofi Acquah.