TOGETHER.  FOR  GROWTH.

Sopada was born in 2012 from the chance encounter of Andrea Puglisi, an Italian, and Mamouda Alidou, a Beninese. An encounter as singular as it was improbable. But we don't believe in coincidences. We are convinced that, in every situation, there is always a plan, a destiny. Both dream of a farm in Africa to feed its inhabitants. An ethical choice, going against the grain of multinationals that are grabbing vast tracts of land for various crops to feed Europe and America, where arable land is increasingly limited. A third dreamer will soon join us: Guido Corradi, a volunteer dentist in the health sector in Africa and Tibet for many years. The goal is to create jobs and improve living conditions in the Donga region of Benin, using our machines to support even small farmers who lack access to them.  At the same time, we wanted to ensure education throughout the region around the company by building primary schools for the 200 children we identified as suffering from total illiteracy. This goal has already been achieved. We have gradually converted our cereal business to that of timber and cashew plantations.

The conversion of our food production project into a plantation of the gmelina arborea species is not a coincidence and does not change our ambitions and our desire to help and contribute to the development and improvement of the living conditions of certain populations. The goal of this conversion is not to saw and sell the raw wood from our trees to international buyers and resellers who do not even care about what is happening in our forests, as almost all loggers do, but on the contrary to gradually transform it on site into various products that benefit all levels of society and thereby provide jobs to several young people who are aware, concerned about their future and armed with good will so that they can earn a decent living. It is also our small way of contributing to the fight against the abusive deforestation that is undermining our countries, which is also one of the major causes of climate change from which the entire universe is suffering.  Our method consists of selecting each year, at the right time, a certain number of mature trees that we work on throughout the year, thus allowing others to grow well. This is a continuous activity and motivated by our vision of fighting against the waste of certain raw materials, excessive deforestation and moving towards the search for solutions to the causes of universal climate change.

Humanitarian projects are implemented each year. These are no longer limited to agricultural support, but primarily focus on education. Hundreds of destitute children can now attend school by providing them with the necessary school materials. Another area of action that is rapidly consolidating is health. Thanks to the expertise of Guido, a dentist, and Paola, a midwife, as well as biomedical equipment, we seek to support those who cannot afford to seek medical care. Thanks to the donations we receive, we can select serious cases among the poorest populations and cover medical and hospital costs, which, in Benin, are always the patient's responsibility.  To support this activity, we also opened a small non-profit restaurant in Ouidah (Atlantic), run voluntarily by Paola.