The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) announced today a new partnership with Barry Callebaut, one of its long-term strategic cocoa sourcing partners, to help thousands of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire. Through Hershey Learn to Grow, Ivorian cocoa farmers will have the opportunity to improve their productivity, raise their incomes and benefit their entire community.

In addition to training 8,000 farmers in sustainable, modern cocoa farming practices that will increase family incomes, the program will help hundreds of children obtain birth certificates, allowing them to enroll in school for the first time. Hershey and Barry Callebaut have also committed to build two new rural primary schools in Côte d’Ivoire as part of the program to further promote education for children in cocoa communities. In 2012, Hershey and Barry Callebaut collaborated to build the Abokro Primary School in western Côte d’Ivoire. Today, the 190-student school features a solar-powered water wheel, a school canteen for meals and a medical clinic.