Four organisations have responded to the call by the United Nations Women to institutions and individuals to take concrete action towards empowering women; by organising health education programmes for women in the Wassa East District.

Mondelez International Cocoa Life, a cocoa processing firm, with World Vision Ghana, Care International and Volunteers Overcoming Poverty thus brought to the women knowledge on cervical cancer, breast cancer and diabetes to help sustain their health.

Addressing the participants at the event, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Mr. Anthony Emmanuel Aggrey, commended women for their enormous contributions towards the socio-economic development of the country.

He urged women to have confidence in themselves and refrain from the over-reliance on men for economic breakthrough, saying God had given them sufficient talents to succeed in life.

The DCE urged women not to shirk their responsibilities at home but to continue to support their respective families to build a better society.

The Country Manager for Mondelez , Mrs. Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, said although many commitments had been made towards ensuring equal opportunities for all persons, women still lagged behind men because of both deliberate and unconscious biases against them.

She said research showed that, “More than 70 per cent of the tasks in the cocoa production are performed by women, and often women are assigned duties that guarantee the quality of the cocoa beans”.

Her firm, she said, was, therefore, committed to empowering women for the critical role they played in the cocoa supply chain.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is. “Pledge for Parity”, and it seeks commitment of all of the world’s citizen’s and organisations to quicken the pace of gender parity for a balanced prosperous world.