Cocoa Life Project empowers women
Conscious or unconscious biases continue to pose great challenges to women empowerment and independence, particularly in rural areas, despite the many commitments made to ensure equal opportunities for all human beings.
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The Cocoa Life initiative of Mondelez International, a leading chocolate manufacturer, is therefore teaching women how to engage in agriculture and also introduced them to other areas of life that make a woman independent.
Women’s role
Mrs Yaa Pepra Amekudzi, the Country Lead of Mondelez International Cocoa Life, said research indicated that more than 70 per cent of the task that guaranteed yields and quality of the cocoa beans were usually done by women. Yet, she said, "When we describe cocoa farmers, the description is hardly female.’’
At Amposaso, a cocoa-farming community in the Wassa East District in the Western Region, the Cocoa Life Project is changing the lives of women.
The project is working on increasing women's involvement and empowerment in farming communities.
Mrs Amekudzi said many transformational stories had been recorded in beneficiary communities, a transformation that was gradual and positive.
Knowledge sharing
Already, women extension volunteers had been formed to serve as middle-women and help their counterparts to be strong, accomplished and prosperous farmers through knowledge sharing.
The women extension workers facilitate education on cocoa farm maintenance, hands-on demonstrations, women empowerment, savings, environmental sustainability, development of community action plan and the well-being of the child.
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The Cocoa Life Initiative also offers support and enhanced skills to women in the acquisition of their own lands to start their own farms or access their own farms through share-cropping.
In order to lessen the burden of hiring labour, the women have formed groups which support each other, especially during harvesting and pruning.
Mrs Amekudzi also said women played a critical role in the cocoa supply chain and must be appreciated and supported.
Madam Esi Badu, a cocoa farmer, recounted the benefits of the project and the financial empowerment it had given her.
"Now I can save money to pay my children's school fees," she said.
— A GNA feature