Draft:Olowo-n'djo Tchala

Olowo-n'djo Tchala is a social entrepreneur from Togo. He founded Alaffia in 2004 and Ayeya in 2022, providing a path towards poverty alleviation and gender equality through the fair trade of African resources.

Biography
He was appointed by the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, to serve a four-year term as a member of the U.S. Trade Advisory Committee on Africa (TACA).

Alaffia
Alaffia was founded in 2003 in the Olympia, Washington garage of husband and wife team, Olowo-n’djo Tchala and Prairie Rose Hyde. Alaffia crafts popular beauty and body care products using traditional African methods. Alaffia is “Fair for Life” certified by the Institute for Marketecology (IMO), one of the most renowned international inspection and certification agencies for organic and fair trade accountability.

Alaffia has dedicated almost twenty years to the mission of reducing poverty and promoting gender equality. This is achieved through the fair trade of indigenous African resources, including unrefined shea butter, African black soap, coconut oil, and neem extract. Profits generated from the sale of Alaffia's acclaimed clean and fair trade beauty and grooming products are reinvested in Togo's communities to support initiatives focused on community empowerment and gender equality. These efforts encompass areas such as maternal health care, education, reforestation, and regenerative agriculture. Alaffia directly employs over 700 women in rural Togo, paying salaries that are four times the average family income, and contracts with more than 14,000 women as suppliers.

At Alaffia's fair-trade cooperatives in Togo and Ghana, a variety of natural resources such as shea nuts, coconuts, herbs, and grasses are gathered. These materials are utilized to create products like shea butter, coconut oil, baskets, and essences. Following this, the raw materials are transported to Alaffia's manufacturing plant in Tumwater, where a dedicated workforce of 145 individuals is engaged in refining, packaging, and preparing the products for distribution in the United States and 10 additional countries.

Today, Alaffia is the second-largest employer in Togo (behind the government of Central Togo), with 700 women hand-crafting Alaffia's products from six diverse cooperatives.

Published works
The TEDx talk titled "Can Africa save herself?" features Olowo-n'djo Tchala as the speaker. The discussion revolves around the question of Africa's capacity to address and overcome its challenges independently. Olowo-n'djo Tchala shares insights and perspectives on this critical topic during the TEDx event at The Evergreen State College.

Recognition
In 2019, Olowo-n'djo Tchala was honored with an invitation to the White House, where he participated in discussions related to the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative. This initiative is led by the White House Senior Adviser, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council.

Recognizing his contributions, Alaffia received the U.S. Secretary of State's 2018 Award for Corporate Excellence in Women's Economic Empowerment.

Additionally, he was acknowledged with the Pacific Northwest EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Award and named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2018.

In 2017, Olowo-n'djo Tchala was honored as the Whole Foods Market's Whole Planet Foundation Trailblazer of the Year. Furthermore, he was appointed by the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, to serve a four-year term as a member of the U.S. Trade Advisory Committee on Africa (TACA).