I went to Ghana to attend the Divine UK and Divine USA board meetings at Kuapa Kokoo HQ in Kumasi. I was travelling with other Board members, our new Finance Director David Upton, and our new Board Chair Patrick Fleming. They were travelling to Ghana and being introduced to Kuapa Kokoo for the first time.
On our way up to Kumasi from Accra, we visited Kukurantumi, a village near Suhum. We were given a wonderful welcome from the Kuapa Kokoo society there. The women's' groups sang songs about democracy and Kuapa and showed us their soap-making project.
This was also a chance for David to see the cocoa fermentation process for the first time. Everyone gathered under the shade of the cocoa trees, and we all introduced ourselves and had an interesting question and answer session where we discovered a lot about each other. I asked how many members they had, and the Secretary George Ofori said 200 who collectively delivered 500 sacks of cocoa in 2009/10. We met the society President, MO Aboagye, and many others, including AK Agyeman and Kwaku Ofori Ofosu-Apea.
I sat and talked to Grace Osei (age 65), President of the Women’s Society which has 32 members. She has two cocoa farms 7 acres and 13 acres, delivering 15 sacks of cocoa. She has been a member of Kuapa for 13 years and attended the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2010 as a delegate.
She discussed how last year’s crop wasn’t as good as usual, and she wants to make sure she gets one of the machetes that Kuapa gives farmers.
Grace also has nine children between 17 and 45 and nine grandchildren.
Augustine Kusi, the Recorder at Ntinako, took us to his cocoa farm. He told us about a hybrid that bears fruit quickly called Akokora Bedi which translates to “An old man will chop.”
Back at the Society office, the posters that Kuapa produced as part of its Child Labour Awareness Program were in full view, pasted on the front of the society shed.
David Upton was really pleased to have the opportunity to go to Ghana so soon after joining Divine. "It was brilliant to be able to really connect myself with what this company is about and what we're trying to achieve," he noted.
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