Women Leading Social Impact – Investments into women’s economic empowerment, responsible sourcing and value addition. We implement and empower woman-led social enterprises in the production of the world’s most genuine artisanal chocolate, coffee and gold products.
Our Work is Built on 3 Primary Principles
Women's Economic Empowerment
-Women are provided opportunities to learn value additional skills while also receiving an income to support their families -All value addition in chocolate, coffee and jewelry completed entirely by women -Independent savings and loan program created and run independently by Project Origins beneficiaries
Climate Action
-Complete elimination of all mercury, cyanide, chlorine gas, nitric and hydrochloric acids from gold (jewelry) supply chains -Shade grown coffee and cocoa helping to prevent deforestation; climate smart farming -50 tons a year of wood recycled -Under 5 amps of electricity used through all value addition processes -@ ORIGIN value addition creates the lowest carbon footprint possible for manufacturing
Building Peace & Resilience
-Living wage programs have been implemented in each supply chain; gold, chocolate and coffee -A network of 32,000 small holder farmers and artisanal miners in eastern DRC -From our training and advisory support 4 local entrepreneurs are replicating ORIGINS Chocolate making model -An additional 26 local enterprises incorporate ORIGINS confectionary ingredients to build new locally made products ranging from bars, bonbons, mousse, cakes and jams -Many of our producing communities produce all 3 raw materials; artisanal gold, chocolate and coffee. By diversifying their economic development opportunities, we are building resilient communities, we are building peace and stability
