Archive for the 'Projects' Category

Computer-Learning Program at Mwaya

Published on July 6, 2012 in Chocolate University and Projects. 3 Comments

Last week at Drury University, Eric Ham and the computer team of students shared the plan to start a video-learning program in the village of Tenende, Tanzania. We had goosebumps listening to all of the work the students and Eric had put into this program. Chocolate University is not just donating six laptops to remote Tanzania, they are creating an entire system of how to learn using a laptop and projector, in a school with NO Internet and NO electricity. It is mind-blowing.  Remember this is a school that until last year did not even have one textbook.

Here’s a little bit about the plan. While in the States, the team downloaded over 3,000 video lessons covering every subject imaginable from the Khan Academy website onto each laptop. The team, with the help of the Mwaya Secondary School staff, will install a generator and run extension cords throughout the rafters of the school. Eric and the students created documents explaining from how to change a lightbulb in the projectors to how to manually bring up the Khan Academy program.

All the documents, as well as all of the Khan Academy lessons on each computer, are stored on a hard drive, so if anything happens to a laptop, they can re-upload the programs. All of the donated laptops have new parts including a new battery so that all of them would have a guaranteed a four hour battery life. The team brought  white shower curtains to make the perfect weather-resistant screens for the projectors, and each item is numbered, so that if any issues arise, it will be easy to communicate the machine with issues.


Yesterday, the plan became a reality. The team worked with the Headmaster of the school and brought an Internet-based program and computers to this school. We have talked to government officials and believe that electricity will be here within a few months. Meanwhile we are using a generator. It is the only school in this district of 26 secondary schools with computers. 

This program was inspired after Shawn watched the 60 Minutes video about the Khan Academy. We highly recommend that you do the same. The Khan Academy is a non-profit, who’s mission is to provide, “a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.” The program is revolutionizing how classes are taught, and now, that same top notch program will be available to the students of Mwaya Secondary School.

Thanks to our Chocolate University computer team we believe that this has the chance to transform this school.

Nutritional Lunch Program Starts at the Elementary School in the Philippines

Published on June 15, 2012 in Chocolate University, Pipkin Middle School and Projects. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

On Wednesday this week, our lunch program officially started at the Malagos Elementary Baguio District school in the Davao, Philippines. If you recall, last fall, the PTA made a special product called Tableya. Made from roasted cocoa beans, milled into a tablet, Tableya is a traditional Filipino drink. You drop the tablet into hot water, add sugar and milk to your liking to have a unique hot chocolate drink!

We sold the product to our customers for $10, and the $9 profit funded a fully sustainable nutritional program for each and every student to have one hot meal everyday. The meals are purchased from our partner Convoy of Hope. This program was started to meet the needs of the extremely malnourished students in the elementary school before addressing their scholastic and technological needs.

Through Chocolate University, Pipkin Middle School in Springfield, Mo., came last fall to hear Shawn Askinosie talk about the new feeding program and how it is 100% sustainable, requiring no donation. We sold the 500 packages of Tableya in little over a month, which fully funded the program for every student for a full year.

We could not be more thrilled to see the program go into full effect this week and look forward to selling Tableya again in the fall to fund the nutritional program for next year!

Friday Feature: Chocolate Country Choices

Published on February 5, 2010 in Central High School, Drury University and Projects. 0 Comments

In the next installment of our Friday Feature series, Central High School student Martha Scott Burton relates the information she has learned about Tanzania and Liberia, the top country choices for the Cocoa Honors team.

The country of Tanzania is experiencing a re-emergence of the cocoa industry, providing an opportune time frame for Cocoa Honors to capitalize on trade’s growth.  Additionally, 95% of the cocoa beans are grown organically (a requirement for Askinosie’s high quality beans).  The bean source is rare and largely undiscovered, allowing Askinosie to potentially create a unique and one-of-a-kind chocolate bar.  Such a chocolate bar could not be produced without great contacts, and Tanzania has plenty of contacts.   Doug Pitt’s well-drilling company, Maji-Tech, has offered great assistance in our service project if we decide upon Tanzania as an African cocoa source.  This is possibly the most exciting opportunity of the project:  to make a sustainable and long-lasting difference in the lives of others.  By funding a well, we would be providing clean water to a region desperately in need of such resources.  The NGO Techno-Serve has also been of excellent help in contacting farmers.  Tanzania has a rich history and a wealth of information that we hope to continue to delve into as the project progresses.

 We were first alerted to the potential of Liberia as a cocoa source by Sourcing Team Leader and Central High School student David Langdon.  Liberia has a deep history, as it was recently ravaged by a fourteen-year civil war.  The cocoa industry is redeveloping, the economy is growing, and the nation is rebuilding, serving as a launch pad of sorts for a great cocoa source.  Being supplied great contacts through the Mars Corporation, we have come in contact with the ACDI-VOCA NGO and many local farmers, including Musu Flomo, who is sending us bean samples in the very near futuer.  These contacts have assured us of the first-class quality of their beans.  To be sure, Liberia has great potential. 

In conclusion, Cocoa Honors believes that Tanzania and Liberia will both yield a great single-origin chocolate bar, one of superb taste and of artistic proportions.

Crunch Time for Chocolate

Published on January 23, 2010 in Central High School, Drury University and Projects. 0 Comments

It’s certainly crunch time for the members of Cocoa Honors and things seem to finally be coming together after a rather lengthy stalemate.  This week, the Business Team and the Communications Team attended a joint meeting on Tuesday in order to discuss and finalize a Donor Packet which is to be distributed to possible donors.  In addition, the Business Team came up with a power point presentation that describes our mission and will be presented to possible sponsors by two Central student representatives from Cocoa Honors.  The only problem was that we were unable to come up with exact financial figures for the donors to observe.  This was soon resolved the next day at the group meeting, when the Business Team released the most up-to-date quotes from Great Southern.  To conclude the meeting, the group accomplished some “clean-up” and made sure that roles were made clear for everybody.  Though we are feeling the heat, Cocoa Honors is on its way to accomplishing its goal.

A Tanzanian Connnection

Published on January 20, 2010 in Central High School, Drury University and Projects. 0 Comments

On December 17 the Cocoa Honors students were able to make a Skype call half-way around the world and speak with Hillary Miller-Wise, the director of TechnoServe activities in Tanzania. TechnoServe is an organization which provides help to businesses disadvantaged by locale and income. Its Tanzania branch aids small businesses in five industries in that country (cocoa, coffee, cotton, tea, horticulture). Ms. Miller-Wise provided information about the system in Tanzania by which cocoa is sold. In Tanzania, cocoa, after being grown by the farmers, is sold to primary buyers who then move the cocoa to the exporters. However, sometimes the primary buyers take advantage of the farmers and do not pay them nearly as much as the cocoa is worth; TechnoServe is trying to address this information disparity to promote fair trade in Tanzania. The situation is so tragic that many farmers have never even tasted finished chocolate, the fruits of their labor. Ms. Miller-Wise, through her experience with the cocoa industry, was also able to share important knowledge about the quality of the beans in Tanzania. She said that the typical harvest season was mainly between February and July. (Sometimes cocoa is available as early as January or as late as August, but that cocoa is generally of lower quality because it is harvested too early or late.) Finally, Ms. Miller-Wise informed the students that travel was likely to be highly inexpensive inside of Tanzania, which is certainly a bonus.