Shea butter can be used for skin and hair, as cooking oil and as a base for medicinal ointments, but Rahama Wright saw another use.

She and her company, Shea Yeleen International, Inc., use shea butter to help improve economic conditions in some of the world’s most impoverished communities.

Shea Yeleen is a U.S. social enterprise that is also registered in Ghana with both non-profit and for-profit status: the enterprise is comprised of a 501(c3) and an LLC.

Of Ghanaian heritage, New York-reared Wright was always interested in Africa and eventually worked and volunteered in West Africa. Now her company, Shea Yeleen, sells soaps, lip balms, and body butters in more than 40 Whole Food stores in the U.S., reports Black Enterprise.

But behind the commerce is Shea Yeleen’s social mission to promote sustainable economic development in rural sub-Saharan Africa, empower and train women-owned shea butter cooperatives, and educate consumers in the U.S. about natural beauty care products and fair trade.

The Tamale Shea Cluster initiative is a local organization representing 400 women shea producers who work in independent shea butter cooperatives in more than 14 villages in Northern Ghana.

Shea butter advocate Joana Teivu of the Tamale cluster met Wright when Wright visited Ghana in 2011 and spoke with the cluster members. “She got to know the low prices women were selling shea butter to middlemen and making losses, (and) gave us a first trial to produce shea butter and sell to Shea Yeleen,” Teivu told AFKInsider. Initially the cluster did not meet the Shea Yeleen quality standard, but Wright’s group trained the producers to improve quality.

“Shea Yeleen looks at improving the lives of women and their communities,” says Teivu, who was invited by Shea Yeleen to visit the U.S. and talk at UTICA College, educating customers at Whole Food Markets in the Northern Atlantic region about the production of shea butter.

During Teivu’s U.S. trip, she says she got to understand why Shea Yeleen stressed quality. “There were posters in the Whole Foods Markets which indicated that ‘If you are not satisfied with any product, return and get your money back’. This is not so in Ghana,” Teivu said.

Shea Yeleen shares profits made through the sale of shea butter with co-ops to pay for health insurance for co-op members who do not have national health insurance. The company recently paid for members of the cluster to attend a three-day training in black soap making to help them expand their product offerings.

AFKInsider: How and why was Shea Yeleen launched?

Rahama Wright: After serving in the Peace Corps for two years in Mali, I launched Shea Yeleen to support economic development for women shea-butter producers in the Sahel region. The company does this by selling high-quality shea butter products sourced from women’s cooperatives in channels that include select Whole Foods Markets, Amazon, and the Shea Yeleen website.

AFKInsider: How does that work — a nonprofit and for-profit together?

Rahama Wright: Very carefully! Currently in order to protect the 501(c3) status, the LLC relationship is at arms length. We work with both accountants and legal counsel to ensure that rules and regulations are followed closely.

AFKInsider: Did your Ghanaian heritage play a role in your launching Shea Yeleen?

Rahama Wright: Absolutely! My Ghanaian heritage played a huge role in the creation of Shea Yeleen. Although I did not grow up in Ghana, knowing my mother’s struggles as a Ghanaian woman influenced my perspective on women and development in Africa. I connected to the lives of women because their experiences reflected many stories I heard has a child. I knew that young girls were often not chosen to go to school and married young because it was a similar experience my mom had. I knew that if a women had access to more income she would use it to care for her children. It made simple sense when I started learning about the disenfranchisement of women shea butter producers to do something to change it. It has not been easy or swift, but each day I work to support the economic advancement of shea butter producers because of the influence of my Ghanaian mother and my belief that all women should have the right to be financially independent.

AFKInsider: What are the goals for this year?

Rahama Wright: Increase distribution of our shea butter products from 48 stores to 200, train 300 shea producers on topics including soap making, savings, and cooperative management, and begin distribution of shea butter products in the African market.

AFKInsider: What are the long-term goals of Shea Yeleen?

Rahama Wright: Expand Shea Yeleen’s product distribution to Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, train and increase income for at least 10,000 women, and develop a production facility in Ghana that produces retail-ready skin and hair-care products.