encouraging sustainable, responsible cocoa growing

Entry by: Tracey Duffey from the World Cocoa Foundation

The Twi proverb “Obi nnim a obi kyere” (What one does not know, another can teach) is one of the first colorful posters I noticed when visiting the Teacher Resource Center (TRC) at the St. Joseph Training College in Bechem*. Games and posterboards line the walls depicting lessons in various school subject areas from health and safety, to science and grammar, and of course cocoa and agriculture.

I traveled with Mr. Kwesi Dzidzienyo, International Foundation for Education and Self-Help Ghana Country Representative, to meet Principal Mensah and the TRC Teacher Coordinator. The TRC offers workshops and resources for pre- and in- service teachers in the surrounding area to learn how to develop creative and interactive teaching materials for use in their lesson plans.

Although the IFESH Volunteer, Mrs. Pauline Landrigan, who worked with the Training College officials to establish the TRC during the 2005-2006 school year, completed her assignment, the principal, teachers, and students energetically continue the activities and trainings.

Local graduate, Mr. Clement Mensah, is the center assistant volunteer (and pictured below at his office desk in the Center).

Clement manages the daily administrative duties at the TRC, which in addition to the teacher training workshops, offers photocopying and typing services for the students and teachers in the community so that their operational costs can be self-sustaining.

I would like to thank Principal Mensah and his team for their gracious hospitality, as well as my colleague Kwesi Dzidzienyo for arranging my visit. I leave you with the quote found on a second poster so prominently displayed in the center:

Best wishes from Ghana, Tracey

*Bechem is one of three towns in Ghana where a TRC has been developed in partnership with IFESH through funding from the World Cocoa Foundation and member The Hershey Company.

Entry: Charlie Feezel

Hi everyone,

I’m Charlie Feezel, the newest member of the World Cocoa Foundation team. I work on education programs and I wanted to tell you how I came to work in this field. It has a lot to do self help and empowerment. It’s the old saying about giving a man a fish. If you give a man a fish he will eat today but if you teach him to fish he’ll eat for a lifetime. His family will eat too and his community will be better for it.

Some years ago I had the opportunity to teach construction skills to people in Africa. I joined the U. S. Peace Corps and went to work at a trade school in Burundi. It was an amazing cultural experience and I found that being able to help others to empower themselves through knowledge and skills was far more rewarding than anything I had done before.

That was over twenty years ago. Today I still find the work as satisfying as ever and the need for knowledge and skills keeps growing. As the world becomes more of a global community the opportunity to deliver critical knowledge shows itself. These are opportunities we must respond to.

Why? The answer lies partly in how we all personally value education and know it’s the right thing. Since we are all members of this global community it is important to make sure all nations are as well educated as possible. We can then grow together and help each other make a better world for all.

Entry: Bill Guyton

Dear Readers,

On February 15, I joined over 400 participants for the “New Liberia – Open for Business” Forum, hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa, International Finance Corporation and OPIC in Washington, DC. Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s first democratically elected female President, and Africa’s first female Head of State, provided an inspirational keynote address.

In the afternoon, I moderated a workshop on agriculture and forestry where Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Chris Toe, provided an outline of the national plan and investment opportunities. The panelists described the current status and potential for rubber, palm oil, and cocoa production in the country. Jeff Morgan from Mars Inc. talked about efforts underway by the World Cocoa Foundation and key partners to support cocoa growing communities in Liberia. Here is a link to the presentation.

These are exciting times for Liberia, moving from an era of political crisis and conflict, to economic development and reform. We congratulate President Johnson Sirleaf and we look forward to working with cocoa farming communities in Liberia.