**PURAVIDAonline**

Our situation stems from the following:
The land was purchased with a debt attached to it. In the 1990′s cocoa plantations throughout the region suffered from the spread of a fungal disease that destroyed the fruits, thus plunging the farm workers into poverty. Farm owners were encouraged to take out loans to invest in the grafting material for resistant species of cocoa. In our case, the owner at the time took out the loan without spending any of the money on the farm! It also turned out that the first supposedly resistant cocoa grafting material did not work, leading to suspicions of conspiracy, and creating grounds for disputing the necessity to repay these loans. Since we moved in, our farm (along with many others) has been passing through the courts.
Unfortunately, our case recently fell through, due to a “technicality”. This started an automatic process of execution and has landed us in a situation where we need to pay part of the debt imminently or the land will be put to auction. For the rest of the debt there is a possibility of taking our case back to the courts or to at least have it renegotiated.
Either way, we need to raise funds fast! To put the land on auction would be a terrible end to all our relationships, to the land and its people. The area is going through fast development and there is no securing that the land will be sold to people with similar priorities of conservation and sustainability.
Many many small donations will go a long way towards securing the future of this land. So thank you! Thank you for contributing if you can and for sharing our cause with others if it inspires you!

The total we need to raise imminently is £35 000.

DONATIONS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED HERE

(After four years the cocoa plantation is finally financially self sustained. We are in the early stages of researching a business plan for future development of the farm so are also open to advice and suggestions, investment and collaboration.)