ADRA News-Summer17.qxp_Layout 1 26/10/17 10:17 am Page 1
Image: Luke Vodell
ADRA NEWS
Summer 2017
Helping Others Thrive It starts in another part of the Solomons: Choiseul Province, northwest Solomon Islands, where he was born. These days, Blais has a wife and two young girls, aged 5 and 6 months, and his family lives about an hour’s drive from the country’s capital: Honiara. Growing up, Blais came from a poor family and his mother died while he was completing school. He describes this as a difficult time. “I was very sad,” Blais says. “We didn’t have
much of anything. Without her, I couldn’t imagine how we were going to survive.” But his father provided for the family, and Blais went on to marry his wife and moved to her village. Blais says he used to be very shy and scared to express his opinions – particularly as an outsider in his wife’s village. To provide for his family, Blais had to move away temporarily to get seasonal work. Blais says his decision to attend some training run by ADRA on cocoa growing techniques was the key to changing his life. As part of ADRA’s Soul Cocoa project, he learnt techniques to improve the process of fermenting and drying
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Blais sits relaxed in the plastic chair under his house. His wide grin reveals a friendly personality as he tells his story.