Recently evacuated Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) Elyse Magen would like to thank FOC for contributing to her National Peace Corps Association fundraising campaign “Economic Empowerment of Women in Colombia.” The campaign funding will be used to support a chocolate dessert business called Transformación, located in the municipality of Santa Marta, Colombia.
Transformación is run by four women and one young man who are all members of a farming collective called Guardabosques de la Sierra. The farming collective finds both national and international markets to sell the cacao grown by its members. As a small scale farmer, it is nearly impossible to live off of just selling cacao beans, thus Transformación was formed with the intention of transforming the cacao bean into different chocolate desserts and selling them to the ever-growing tourism market in their region. Campaign funds will go towards creating a workspace with machinery that will be able to produce chocolate bars.