Enhancing the health and wellness of Ghanaian cocoa employees and their families

A comprehensive workplace health program at our new cocoa-processing plant

When a large employer initiates operations in a new community, it is doing more than expanding its business; it is forging what it hopes will be mutually rewarding, long-term relationships with the people, organizations and institutions in the area. For ADM, our decision to locate a new cocoa processing facility in Kumasi, Ghana, created an opportunity to address pressing community health concerns by establishing a comprehensive workplace health program for our local employees, their families and a host of other residents engaged in cocoa-related businesses. The latter group includes cocoa farmers, transporters and local buyers.

The program, developed in partnership with Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), an international sustainable development organization, aims to meaningfully reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases, and to increase access to health and social services offered by the country’s National Health Insurance Scheme. Approximately 800 ADM employees and their immediate family members and 800 individuals in nearby cocoa-related businesses enrolled in the program upon its establishment in 2009.

Our efforts to promote optimal health for cocoa industry workers in Ghana is an extension of a similar program ADM has operated in Côte d’Ivoire for several years. Working with Treichville University Hospital Center’s Tropical and Infectious Disease Service, more than 1,400 full-time and seasonal ADM employees have been trained in HIV-prevention tactics. HIV-positive employees are provided access to confidential counseling and treatment from local medical personnel on a voluntary basis.