A Burnham-On-Sea woman who works with The Body Shop has returned from an “unforgettable” trip to Ghana to see how Shea butter is produced.
Sian Vowles, who is the south west’s community trade ambassador for The Body Shop at Home, was one of four ladies selected from 18,000 UK consultants to represent the company on the six-day visit.
During the visit, she met members of the Tungteiya Shea Women’s Association, as pictured here, where she got to see the 18-stage process of making Community Trade Shea butter, which is renowned for being an ideal cosmetic ingredient that softens skin and has anti-inflammatory and healing properties.
She said: “The women of the association get a premium wage, and decide what it is spent on – they have built schools, a hospital, a teacher training centre, and a huge fresh water system which we visited.”
“The villagers got us up dancing with them – the community spirit was amazing! There are 900 women who are part of the association from 11 villages and when we asked how we can help, they said by selling more of the butter.”
Sian added that she’s been passionate about The Body Shop for 35 years and so being selected “was a really big honour.”
