The problem
2.3 million children are scarred, hungry and overcome with despair in only ghana and the ivory coast. This is by the cruel hands of one bar of chocolate. A bar of chocolate that is paid for with your money. Everytime you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want. So do you really want a world plagued by child labor and an ever-lasting cycle of poverty in exchange for only a piece of chocolate?
Meet Ibrihim Traoré. He is fifteen years old and has worked on a cocoa bean farm for all of his life. he has never been to school. a machete hangs causually against his left hip as he speaks in french of his experience here. "It is very hard." suddenly a group of younger boys walks past, swinging their machetes loosely in thier hands. Behind this group of boys is a sign. This sign that appears to be placed by the governement in order to educate farmers of children's rights. It reads in french, "the worst forms of child labor." below this is a drawing of a young boy carrying cocoa beans with a large red "x" over it. underneath is another sentence: "the place for children is school."
torn of their education, children work long hours AND MISTREATED only to be paid little to nothing for the company's own benefit. It is up to you to make an educated choice about who you buy chocolate from. be the voice for those who have none.
Candy companies such as nestlé, hershey, cargill, adm and barry callebout have admitted accountabily and promised to remedy this situation. sadly, 14 years have passed since this agreement and little to nothing has changed. The candy industry is a us 70 billion-dollar industry. It should have changed. help make the change.
torn of their education, children work long hours AND MISTREATED only to be paid little to nothing for the company's own benefit. It is up to you to make an educated choice about who you buy chocolate from. be the voice for those who have none.
Candy companies such as nestlé, hershey, cargill, adm and barry callebout have admitted accountabily and promised to remedy this situation. sadly, 14 years have passed since this agreement and little to nothing has changed. The candy industry is a us 70 billion-dollar industry. It should have changed. help make the change.
Up to 60% of the world's chocolate is sourced only from Africa. This is horrifying because the world's top consumer of chocolate is in fact America. The cocoa farmers in these places are likely never to taste chocolate in their lives despite the fact that they sacrifice their futures and educations for this production.
"Nobody hates his own kids," says one farmer. "we learned from the training that we have to do things differently."