"I've traveled a long distance to attend this important event. It would have been unthinkable for me, a woman, to attend this cocoa farming-related seminar just a few years ago "Charity Ofori, a female cocoa farmer, said Cocoa Post.
Charity had been seen earlier with hundreds of other female cocoa growers, most of whom were dressed in a bright yellow fabric with a circular green and white insignia and the strong word, Cocoa Life.
Mondelez International's Cocoa Life is the company's sustainability initiative.
The women moved in beautiful Adowa dance steps in perfect harmony to the sounds flowing from the talking drums of a Kete group, creating an infectious aura of enthusiasm.
Underneath the joy that all of these great cocoa ladies exhibited, there were hidden stories of life transformation.
Interestingly, their unique life change stories had drawn them from all across the country to Goaso, a thriving cocoa-producing town in the Ahafo Region, which hosted a Cocoa Life animators mini-congress to coincide with the 2022 International Women's Day.
Cultural divides
Charity is now the happy owner of a nine-acre cocoa estate in Kofi-Asare, a hamlet in the Eastern Region's West Akyem District.
The 50-year-old mother of four has been working in cocoa production for about a decade, although she previously grew local staples for five years.
Charity presently serves as Vice-President of the Odumkyere Damang Cocoa Farmers' Society in addition to farming. She is also the Assistant Treasurer of the West Akyem District Farmers Union, and the President of a 1,636-member group of Community Animators with 15 unions at the national level.
Community animators are trained volunteers who function as focal points for farming and development initiatives in their communities.
While there appears to be an increase in the number of empowered female cocoa growers in Ghana, Charity acknowledges that this has not always been the case.
Ghana is the world's second-largest cocoa producer, with a thriving cocoa value chain. Women have an important part in cocoa production, from pre-harvest through harvest and post-harvest operations, although their contributions are generally overlooked.
Because Ghanaian society is mainly patriarchal, women's social and economic contributions are often neglected.