11/02/2015
All of us should wonder, at least sometimes,
where the products we buy come from. None
of us want to do harm, or to take advantage
of the poor and children.
A chocolate bar often owes its existence to
punishing hours of child labour. In Côte
d’Ivoire and West Africa, the leading
producers of cocoa, as many as 12,000
children are exploited for cocoa farming.
Most don’t even know the taste of
chocolate.
Full-time labour is a physical, mental, and
social danger to these children. They operate
hazardous machinery, mix and apply
chemicals to cocoa trees; harvest ripe cocoa
pods with knives and carry heavy bean sacks
for processing. Long days mean missing
school or dropping out altogether, extending
the cycle of poverty and exploitation.
While organizations around the world
implement projects for child protection and
education, many children continue to be
enslaved and trafficked to produce cocoa,
clothing or rugs, with companies and
governments more interested in money than
improving conditions for child labourers and
all their citizens. It’s a shame, it’s a crime,
please don’t buy these products of
exploitation.
Why should we
care?
Millions of
children
work in
unacceptable
conditions
that are
dangerous,
hazardous
and simply
tragic.
Millions of
girls working
as house
servants are
exploited
and abused.
Child
labourers in
developing
countries
often don’t
get paid for
their work.
Those who
are paid
make much
less than
adult
workers and
are hardly
able to
contribute
financially to
their
families.
Education is
impossible.
Ending
illegal child
labour would
help the
global
economy, as
creating
proper
health care
and
education
conditions,
in the end,
are of
greater
benefit. It
would cost
around $760
billion to end
child labour
over a period
of 20 years,
while the
estimated
benefit of
better child
education
and health is
more than
six times
that.
Fast Facts
One in six
children 5
-14 years
old is
involved in
child labour
in developing
countries.
Around 1.2
million
children —
both boys
and girls —
are trafficked
each year
into
exploitative
work in
agriculture,
mining,
factories,
armed
conflict or
commercial
s*x trade.
The highest
numbers of
child
labourers are
in sub-
Saharan
Africa – 49
million are
involved in
work of
various
types.
Some
children are
forced to
work up to
18 hours a
day.
In the least
developed
countries, 30
percent of
all children
are engaged
in child
labor.
Worldwide,
126 million
children
work in
hazardous
conditions,
often
enduring
beatings,
humiliation
and s*xual
violence by
their
employers.
