It might be 'activated' (available as an option in creating DB's in MySQL) but is your Moodle DB character set utf8 and collate utf8_general_ci?
mysql> show variables like '%character%';
shows system defaults related to character set.
How about your Moodle DB?
mysql> use moodle24;
Database changed
mysql> show variables like "character_set_database";
+------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+------------------------+-------+
| character_set_database | utf8 |
+------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> show variables like "collation_database";
+--------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------+-----------------+
| collation_database | utf8_general_ci |
+--------------------+-----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
If there are no tables in the DB (you are installing), one could drop the database and then recreate it using:
mysql> create database moodle24 character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci;
'spirit of sharing', Ken