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by Burt's Bees | 5 min read
ALL ABOUT SHEA BUTTER
Shea Butter is in hundreds of our products - including our new Shea collection.
African Shea Butter is full of antioxidants, vitamins, and essential fatty acids that help soothe, balance and moisturize dry skin. For thousands of years, Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii) has been extracted from the fruit of the African Karite tree, which only grows on the dry savannah of West Africa.
CULTIVATING COMMUNITIES
Today, there are 16 million women working in shea throughout Africa. Shea Butter is known to many as “women’s gold“ in the regions where it’s harvested. Since the 1300s, shea has been an important source of income in African countries, primarily for women living in remote villages. It’s common for women to collect shea nuts, roast the kernels and physically extract the butter.
Burt’s Bees has invested in women working in shea for over a decade to promote economic independence for generations to come. Working together with regional partners, we’ve been able to support more than 10,000 women.
5 facilities constructed for Shea, Beeswax and Honey production
600+ women trained in beekeeping to increase income and shea fruit yield
8,500+ women trained on quality shea kernel processing
Founding member of the Global Shea Alliance
The SheKeeper program will be made up of 1200 smallholders (small scale farmers), at least half of whom are women. The program will help to diversify income sources, crops and biodiversity and increase exports from West Africa.
SheKeeper puts women at the center of beekeeping. Women participants will select a beekeeping partner and work as a team managing the hives to collect and sell honey and wax. Beekeeping around the world is managed predominantly by men, and SheKeeper has the potential to scale and improve the livelihoods of the more than 16 million women collectors and processors across 21 African countries that make up the shea industry.
