Deprive cocoa communities receives Cadbury support

Accra, Nov. 4, GNA - Cadbury Ghana and Cadbury Canada on Tuesday donated 5,000 bicycles to be distributed to school children in deprived cocoa growing communities to increase their access to education. The donation comes in the wake of the long distances the children walk to school.

It is part of a 45 million pounds Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, a ground breaking initiative developed to secure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of almost a million cocoa farmers and their communities.

In Ghana, the partnership is investing 30 million pounds sterling for the next 10 years.

The Bicycle Factory initiative was launched by Cadbury Canada. Canadians visit the virtual factory at www.thebicyclefactory.ca where every Cadbury UPC code entered online will equal a bicycle part and for every 100 UPC codes, a bicycle is build. Mr James Boateng, Managing Director of Cadbury Ghana, said the donation would go a long way to build on the country's human resource and improve the performance of the school children.

School children who have the greatest need and travel three kilometres or more would benefit from the package in the more than 216 cocoa growing communities in Central and Southern Ghana.

"This is a remarkable example of the commitment of Cadbury to the partnership and to the development of the manpower needs of the community," Mr Gary Scullion, General Manager Cadbury Canada said. "We hope with this, we are not only extending the frontiers of education but also ensuring that the vulnerable in society get access to education, which is key for development. According to the United Nations, more than 40 million African children are growing up without schooling.

Mr Alex Tetteh Enyo, Minister of Education said the bicycle was a major incentive to increase access to education in rural communities since it would save the children from walking long distances to school. Three non-governmental organisations: World Vision, CARE, and Voluntary Services Organisation already involved in the partnership, would distribute the bicycles. 4 Nov. 09