A 23-member students’ delegation from the Milton Hershey School, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. is expected to arrive in the country early July, 2016 on an educational tour of the cocoa industry to familiarize themselves with the operations of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).

The delegation, led by Mr. Tim Wasielewski, a Senior Director of the School, will be interacting with young cocoa farmers on their farms to acquaint themselves with good agronomic practices in cocoa and also get better understanding of the country’s culture.

COCOBOD and Hershey have maintained long standing relationship over the years. The Cocoa-link Project which was rolled out in 2011 was a public–private partnership programme between COCOBOD and Hershey. Under this partnership project, Hershey, working with World Cocoa Foundation introduced the Cocoa Link Project which uses mobile phone technology to deliver timely farming, social and marketing information to cocoa farmers to help cocoa farmers improve yield and their income.

Last year, an advance team from Hershey led by Mr. Tim Wasielewski, a Senior Director of the School, was in the country to acquaint themselves with the activities of the cocoa industry. Mr. Wasielewski promised to send some students of the school to Ghana on an educational tour of the cocoa industry in July, 2016 to learn more about the significant roles shade trees and hybrid cocoa seedlings play in ensuring cocoa sustainability.

As part of their visit, they will observe and support some young cocoa farmers to plant over 1,000 shade trees and a number of cocoa seedlings on some farms at Assin Fosu in the Central Region as well as visit a basic school in Akyem Tafo and another at Assin Fosu.

The students will also visit some tourist sites to learn more about Ghana’s history during their two weeks stay in the country.

The Milton Hershey School is a private philanthropic (pre-kindergarten through 12th grade) boarding school in Hershey, Pennsylvania which was founded and funded by a chocolate industrialist, Milton Snavely Hershey and his wife, Catherine Sweeney Hershey. For more than 100 years, Milton Hershey School has helped children to realize their full potential by offering top-notch education.

The School is a cost-free, private, co-educational school equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, caring adult mentors, advanced technology and many extracurricular activities for more than 2,000 students from across the United States of America.