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Pelican News Blue Skies Newsletter. December 2009

WORK TO START ON SIX FOUNDATION PROJECTS IN 2010

-Foundation Board gives go ahead for six projects -Projects expected to be completed by July 2010

The Blue Skies Foundation Board met this month in Ghana to approve its first round of projects. The Foundation, which is a partnership between Blue Skies, Waitrose and Albert Heijn, has committed to making £100,000 available for projects in its first year. At its second meeting the Board approved six projects which included a new classroom block for a school, the rehabilitation of a kindergarten and a primary school, public toilets for a village with poor sanitation, a corn milling machine and service centre for a coconut farming community and a sports complex for the staff and surrounding communities of Blue Skies.

Work on the sports complex has already started whilst work on the remaining projects will commence in January 2010. It is expected that all projects will be completed by July next year.

In addition to approving projects, the Board also welcomed their new advisory director, Gloria Fafa Alidu and met members of the representative Council to announce their decision and discuss plans for the future.

Above: Members of the Blue Skies Foundation Board and the representative Council

GHANA WINS GOLD AWARD

Blue Skies Ghana has won a Gold award in the 2nd Ghana Business and Financial Excellence Awards which was organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Blue Skies won the award in recognition of the outstanding contribution the company had made to the social and economic development of Ghana.

SNOW CHAOS IN EUROPE

Above: the view from the UK office

Below freezing temperatures have caused chaos for our logistics teams as snow and ice has led to long delays and cancellations on flights into and out of Europe.

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DOUBLE AUDIT SUCCESS

Above: Abdallah Mohamed (centre) and Jonathan Southwood (far right)at Aashoor strawberry farm near Bilbeis, Egypt d Jonathan Southwood from NSF-CMI spent two weeks with us at Blue Skies in early December in Ghana and Egypt. He has been to both sites last year to do LEAF in Ghana and Global GAP in Egypt. This year he audited us for LEAF and Global GAP certifications at both sites. d Both sites passed both audits successfully. This is the first time for LEAF in Egypt and the second time in Ghana. Both sites have had successful Global GAP audits for years. Jonathan audited the central management system, which is the same for both standards, and then visited a sample of farms in both countries. d The tropical forest at the farms in Ghana was very different to the dry sandy desert at the farms in Egypt, but thanks to the hard work on LEAF of Dorothy and Emmanuel in Ghana, and Abdallah in Egypt, Jonathan could see that Blue Skies agronomists were taking good care of both environments. d He could also see that we continue to produce safe food by complying with the Global GAP standard at all of our supplying farms.

Report by Stephan Morris, Blue Skies Group Technical Manager

Above: Jonathan Southwood at the Canaan farming community in Ghana

KEEPING FIT FOR BLUE SKIES GHANA

Our Keep-Fit club in Ghana (pictured above) recently participated in the Asempa FM ‘Fitness and Fun games Festival’ in Accra. The keep fit club has been very active of late. They also took part in the Africa Sports Day Annual Endurance walk which is a 17km walk from Accra to Aburi.

COMMUNITY HALL NEARLY FINISHED

Work is progressing well on the Community Centre project in the village of Budukwaa in Ghana (pictured above). The project is being funded by the Julia Piper Foundation for Community Inspiration and the Yewlands Family of Schools and is being managed by Blue Skies Ghana. The project is scheduled for completion early in 2010.

WORKS BEGINS ON SPORTS COMPLEX

Work has begun on a sports complex which is being funded and managed by the Blue Skies Foundation. The complex will be constructed in phases. Phase 1 is the football pitch which is due for completion in July 2010. The start of the work was marked with a sod-cutting ceremony which was attended by the Blue Skies staff and members of the local media. Director Seth Dei is pictured cutting the first patch of earth from the site of the complex.

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RECYCLING BRINGS REWARDS FOR STAFF IN BLUE SKIES BRAZIL

As part of its effort to preserve the environment, BS Brazil sells all of its cardboard fruit boxes to a local recycling company in Mogi. , This year part of the small income made from recycling was used towards buying tee-shirts for the Blue Skies Brazil football team and buying a Christmas cake for all members of staff. The Christmas cake is called a ‘Panettone’ which is a rich Italian fruit cake traditionally eaten at Christmas and very popular in Brazil. This is only a small gift to our staff but the message is that each one is very important to us and we all together make Blue Skies Brazil! Merry Christmas to all! Report by Adriana Tabelião, Blue Skies Brazil

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Above: Tina and Emily from our personnel department in Ghana, proudly show off the Gold Award which Ghana recently won during the Ghana Business and Financial Excellence Awards

PEOPLE OF BLUE SKIES

This month we meet Mampho Motloung and Jabulile Lefu from Blue Skies South Africa and Farida Younis from Blue Skies Brazil.

Hi, my name is Mampho, I have started to work with Blue Skies since the beginning, I have started at High Care to Warehouse and then to Ops leader June 2007 till now. It has been an awesome growth.

Above: Mampho with her new baby girl

To be a mother is one the most beautiful and wonderful experiences ever. I feel blessed and honored, I feel like a whole new person. Motherhood has taught me to be patient and humble. There’s an enormous joy in my life, I wish my little girl a happy and joyful life, with all the love, care, support and protection she gets from all of the family, I hope she will. By the way she is my first bundle of Joy. -------------------------------------------------- My name is Jabulile Lefu; I recently joined BSSA as an Assistant Technical Manager. In the two months I’ve been here I’ve managed to blend in well with the team, learn the company vision, aims and objectives, the systems that drive it and generally learn about the culture of working, here.

Above: Jubulile pictured in South Africa

I must say I’m delighted to join the company at large and hope I will add value, share knowledge and more importantly learn from others during my time here.

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BLUE SKIES TEAMS STORM TO VICTORY ON FARMERS DAY!

Above: The victorious Blue Skies Ghana ladies team.

This years Farmers Day was celebrated with a football match between the Blues Skies Ghana football teams and a local pharmaceutical company called the ‘Geomedics’. The games started with the ladies match which was the match of the day. The game started with a lot of excitement and exhibition of great skills by the ladies of Geomedics. The Pelican ladies were resolute and firm at the defence.

The team led by Benedicta Dogbo dominated during the second half and scored the only goal of the day by Naomi Kamasa of Production. (pictured above kneeling on the left).

The second game between the men also ended 2 - 0 in favour of the Pelican boys with both goals scored by Eben Asare (aka ‘Shearer’) of the accounts office.

Thanks to BSSA and Management for all their support.

Report by Alistair Djimatey, Blue Skies Ghana.

Above: The Blue Skies Ghana men’s team ‘The Pelican Boys’.

PEOPLE OF BLUE SKIES

My name is Farida Younis and I am a Production Engineer at Blue Skies Egypt where I have worked since August 2004. I have a Masters degree in food science from Ain Shams university. I like watching Tom & jerry movies, and Cooking Egyptian dishes (I love EL Mesakaa) and I am good at making deserts. I remember my first day working for Blue Skies. It was a strange day as it was a new field for me. Previously I worked for 4 years in the Agriculture research centre (food technology department) so coming to Blue Skies was my first experience of working in a factory. However, with the support of all my colleagues I can manage my tasks and get over all difficulties. I like working for Blue Skies Egypt because they respect and appreciate women who work. This enables me to be successful in work and in my private life. My dream for myself is that I wish I had a nursery and I wish to live in Makka with my husband. For Blue Skies I hope it keeps going up and spreading its unique model in all countries.

WORKS BEGINS ON TEACHERS QUARTERS

Work has started on teachers’ quarters at the village of Ywa Duodu near to our pineapple growing area in Ghana. The project is being funded with help from Blue Skies Ghana for the Akwapim Foundation. GM, Ruth Adjei is pictured with the village Chief having planted a tree to mark the start of the work.

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BLUE SKIES THINKING

The views expressed in this column are the views of individuals and do not necessarily represent the views of Blue Skies or Pelican News.

Know this about the human being

Of all God’s creation, the human being is the most complex to handle or “tame.’ Working with people is one of the most difficult tasks to perform. It can be filled with stress, heartache, depression and headaches if not well programmed. There are lots of human photo copies and duplicates pretending to be originals. This has and continues to worsen an already bad situation making human beings more intricate.

Everybody’s face looks “fine” and innocent as you walk around. You then wonder why all kinds of evil activities are committed? Who are involved? When do they hatch these evil plans? People smile at you openly but hate you inwardly. Some one is talking to you but his real intentions are different from what he is telling you. You have a free mind towards people but these same people wished you failed, died, got into serious trouble and embarrassed or disgraced. That is the human being for you. Human beings are very complicated and unpredictable. The biggest limitation we have is our inability to read the human mind or heart.

Human beings sometimes behave in a way that makes you rethink your relationship with people. Casualties of human behavior have often been saddled with broken hearts, emotional traumas, hurts, distrusts and in worse scenarios asylum. Un-forgiveness, bitterness, vengeance and wickedness becomes the repercussions of their reaction.

What do you think pharmacists or druggists, makers of coffins, grave diggers, mortuary men, sextons, eye specialists, medical doctors, and gynecologists will be praying for? Your guess is as good as mine.

Some people can be treacherous, vicious and wicked. Unfortunately for us we are obliged to live with them.

I do not intend to make you fear or suspect any one but to reveal the reality of human behavior so as to facilitate your understanding of how to relate to the people you live and work with. Understanding human behavior will help you function efficiently as a member of the Blue Skies family.

It must be noted on the other hand that there are a lot of good people with very good thoughts intentions and initiatives, who have tried selflessly to facilitate the progress of people. They continuously sacrifice all they have for the welfare of others and even go to the extent of thinking of other people’s welfare more than theirs. Although they are not rewarded by the people they often care for, they still live by their convictions to help mankind. Their daily behavior is filled with compassion, mercy, love and care. Our chairman (Anthony Pile), Bill Gates and Rockefeller are typical examples

How do we then deal with human beings:

- Be very cautious with people

- Do not be quick to make friends or trust people

- Take and spend time to study people before opening up to them

- If possible visit and get to know them really well

- In dealing with people always be in “neutral gear”

- Have a free, opened mind and good thoughts towards people

- Do not be suspicious of any one or have a prejudiced mind about people

- Do not rely on some one’s report to label people

- Know that you can at anytime be shocked by people’s behavior

- Love people from your heart and sacrifice all you can for mankind

Enter the New Year with the notion that every body needs somebody to succeed but be careful. Due to inadequate space and God willing I will revisit this subject next year. A blessed Christmas and a progressive New Year to Blue Skies Staff World wide.

By Shakespeare Djokoto, Agronomy Dept Blue Skies – Ghana

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to our GM in Ghana on recently graduating for her MBA. Congratulations also to Elizabeth, our wonderful housekeeper at the Blue Skies Ghana Guest House, who married Dan on Sunday 13th December. Dan is a teacher and an expert refrigeration engineer.

Congratulations to Mr. Peter O. Sackey (pictured above) who won the national best Mango farmer 2009 during the National Farmers’ Day awards held in Tamale. Blue Skies wishes to congratulate all our farmers who were honoured during this year’s awards.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to Ibrahim Gamal (pictured above on right and Aly Sakr (on left) from Blue Skies Egypt who both celebrated their birthdays this month. Happy birthday also to Alistair Djimatey from Blue Skies Ghana. Happy birthday to everyone who has celebrated their birthday in December.

SEE YOU IN 2010!

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to Pelican News in 2009. We wish all the Blue Skies family the very best for the New Year.