Made with Purpose
About Afribol & The Afribol Company
The Afribol snack was created by our founder, Barbara, after she discovered that many women were losing their lives in childbirth due to their inability to pay maternal medical bills upfront. Barbara decided to create a treat so delicious it would sell itself and begin raising the funds required to directly pay those bills. From this vision was born The Afribol Company.
The Company
The Afribol Company is a purpose-driven food brand that produces, markets, and sells exotic, irresistibly delicious snacks and treats with a mission to combat poverty-induced maternal deaths in Africa and beyond. By creating a line of deliriously addictive treats, The Afribol Company strives to not only delight customers, but to also directly contribute to efforts aimed at minimising the conditions that lead to preventable maternal mortality.
Mission
Vision
To build a global food and wellness company that serves as an unstoppable funding machine in the fight against maternal mortality.
A world where no woman has to die in childbirth for lack of money.
The Team
In 2016, the Afribol team was a mother-and-son team. The new (Post COVID19) Afribol team is made up of two women who are driven by a passion to create better conditions for other women and to build a global brand. The son remains a powerful force of support and help to the remodeled company. But the driving force now is the CEO and COO.
Barbara
Eliane
Afribol creator & Founder - CEO
Co-Founder - COO
In 2006, New York Times travel writer Nicholas Kristof published a story on his travel blog about a young pregnant woman dying on a hospital bed in Cameroon because medics would not treat her without upfront payment for her hospital bills. It was money her husband did not have—or could not produce—at the time the medics demanded it.
It Started in 2006
Then this happened in 2013
In 2013, Barbara Gwanmesia read that blog post and decided to create her own snack combination to sell and begin raising money to send to hospitals in Cameroon and elsewhere in Africa (and beyond) where women were being denied—or were at risk of being denied—medical attention during childbirth.
The Afribol Story
So it was that the Afribol was born in 2013, taking the Netherlands by storm in 2016 when it first debuted on the market in the country's biggest supermarket. In one single evening, 14,000 of the balls flew off the shelves of the Albert Heijn to-go stores across the country. Within 14 days, all 23,000 Afribols that had been produced were sold out. So deliriously delicious were those coconut-covered, rum-tastic chili hot balls that repeat buyers would rush from store to store looking for more!
The pause and the come-back
To realize our mission, we created a Dutch Impact foundation (Stichting Good Food Great Cause) to manage the mission's activities, and an insurance fund called the Birthaidfund to directly pay the medical bills of women in need to medical facilities. We were privileged to partner with an award-winning medical organization in Cameroon called Gifted Mom. It was as a result of the work that started being done through these organizations that we became a nominee for the Albert Schweitzer Prize in 2018. See more on our impact page.
Six years after a COVID outbreak brought a pause to the momentum, the snack-alicious treat is back. It is back with its mission to help in the fight against maternal deaths. This time, however, it is no longer Barbara's fight for a just world—or the fight of her son Bengyella, who co-founded the Afribol Company in 2016/2017 and drove its phenomenal market success and dominance. This time, it is also the mission of Eliane (the new Afribol Company COO) and the mission of everyone else who believes that a more just world is possible in the process of enjoyment.
Contact us any time
For any inquiries or to be an Afribol partner, reach out any time. We'd love to hear from you. And would love even more to respond
