The Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union has ended its 23rd Annual Delegates Conference in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, with a commitment to ending child labour on cocoa farms.
According to its acting Executive Secretary, efforts to ensure that cocoa production is child-labour free, is of high priority to Kuapa Kokoo; hence a 5-year remediation plan to achieve that goal.
Some international cocoa processing companies have threatened to stop purchasing from countries which exploit children in the cocoa business.
Speaking to Ultimate Business on the sidelines of the conference, Nelson Adubufour admitted that child labour was a “dangerous phenomenon” but assured the Union was “trying its best, to as much as possible prevent it”.
“We have given ourselves five years to reduce child labour on cocoa production. Cultural settings make it sometimes difficult but we have put in interventions to make sure there is remediation; even if there is a case that we know of, we send in a team to rescue the child.”
He added “the measures we are taking specifically is awareness creation through sensitization and video shows so that the farmers get to know what the repercussions of child labour are and how it hinders the lives of their children”.
“We have also been providing facilities, helping them with logistics like school bags, books and sometimes money to help them improve their livelihoods”.
Furthermore Kuapa Kokoo in conjunction with the Millennium Promise Alliance, headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, have prepared a proposal named “Kuapa Kokoo Back to School Project’ to increase access, enrolment, quality and retention of children in school in at least 12 cocoa growing districts in Ghana.
The Kuapa Kokoo Co-operative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union Limited (KKFU)’s 23rd Annual Delegates Conference took place from Wednesday September 27 to Thursday September 28, 2017. It was under the theme: “Producing Ghana’s Best Cocoa Beans, Creating Sustainable Employment and Reducing Poverty to Ensure Social Integration – Our Mandate as a Co-operative”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Patricia Ama Bonsu
