Meet Séverin
Meet Séverin
The truck is there: it’s time for sensitization and celebration!
The Cocoa Horizons truck is a multi-purpose mobile unit able to reach remote cocoa farming communities. The mission of the truck is to sensitize community members on child protection and environmental preservation along with bringing access to essential care.
To gather and engage community members to join the event, Séverin the Cocoa Horizons truck showman is doing great work to make the event a fun and joyful moment. To warm-up the audience, both children and parents are invited to join dance contests, answer quizzes and participate to playful activities like musical chairs.
Sensitization is done through movies and open dialogues with the community members. Parents can speak up, share their concerns and questions related to child protection, for example. It helps the team understand the challenges they face and provide relevant solutions.
The venue of the truck gathers all the community members. It’s a perfect opportunity to bring essential care. The Cocoa Horizons team in partnership with local health authorities organize free medical check-ups.
Meet Séverin: the greatest showman!
Séverin started working with Cocoa Horizons as a coach in 2018. After 4 years, he joined the truck team as the greatest showman! This job is really rewarding as not only can he sensitize and exchange with communities, but he’s also creating a joyful celebration inviting everyone to join in and have fun, himself included.
“Our first objective when we enter a community is to make sure that the message we bring is very clearly delivered, and the people get it. By the time we are leaving, I want to hear our message on everyone’s lips. Yesterday, our message was that kids need to be at school. We also have such messages about the need to protect the environment, child protection, and best practices for growing cocoa.”
Séverin and the team are visiting dozens of communities per year. Each visit is unique and the team needs to be able to adapt quickly to the context of each community.
“My most interesting experience happened in a village close to Gagnoa. When the chief and elders of the community heard we were coming, they organized a football match for men and women. Instead of just spending a day with them, we ended up spending two days. The people were so supportive and excited. The Chief of the village was really grateful and requested that we come back anytime!”
Sometimes, the context is less favorable but the team always find ways to make their visit an unforgettable moment.
“Even though it’s not part of our job, we recently got to play peacemakers in another community. There was a fight between the farmers and the cooperative. There was great tension between them. Thanks to the event we organized, we got to sit both parties down and found an amicable solution. The people were so happy, they threw a party for all of us to enjoy. It was a very fulfilling experience.”
Our biggest challenge is how to make sure we create a long lasting impact in the communities we show up in. How do we make sure they don’t forget everything we taught them, only remembering the fun? Apart from this, the rain can be a showstopper sometimes but that’s not a big deal.
The Cocoa Horizons Foundation
The Cocoa Horizons Foundation is a non-profit organization, third party verified, highly transparent on premium and methodology, based in Switzerland and established and supported by Barry Callebaut. It’s an impact driven program with the vision to drive cocoa farmer prosperity by creating self-sustaining communities that protect nature and children. The Foundation supports the Sustainable Development Goals (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment)*.
*The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States.
