Cocoa Life Ghana, Mondelez International’s sustainability program, has presented one thousand six hundred and thirty-six (1,636) bicycles to its community animators in all its 818 partner societies.
Each of the cocoa communities, represented by a farmers’ cooperative or society, received two bicycles.
Community animators are focal persons elected by the society and charged with the responsibility of promoting cocoa farming as a business and also the development of people in accordance with the program’s sustainability principles.
The Cocoa Life Program helps communities gain knowledge and skills to improve their livelihoods, strengthen their communities and inspire the next generation of cocoa farmers.
It strives to achieve these objectives through women empowerment, child protection, sustainable farming practices, community development, youth and the environment.
As vanguards of the program objectives at the grassroots, community animators are trained and resourced to promote change through continuous interaction and awareness creation in the communities.
They are also trained to identify early warning signals of unusual occurrences on farms and in communities and sound the alarm to extension officers and cooperative leaders for timeous and appropriate intervention.
According to program managers, the bikes would enhance the mobility of the animators through the communities, especially the remotest hamlets.
Country Lead of Cocoa Life Ghana, Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, commended the community animators for their hard work and commitment to the ultimate goal of making cocoa production and chocolate making a sustainable global industry.
She challenged recipients to always keep a good maintenance routine for their bicycles in order to ensure its optimum performance.
Charity Ofori, a community animator from the West Akyem cocoa cooperative union, received the bicycles on behalf of the national union of community animators.
She stated that the provision of the bicycles would serve as great motivation to all animators to give of their best, convinced that the development of their respective cocoa communities is highly dependent on the quality of their service.