We can stop the chocolate by Josephine Kurdziel

Dear Chocoholic,

       Children getting cut with machetes are working for very little money and some never even know about or have tasted chocolate. The pain the kids go through is unbearable. To know that the chocolate that millions of people eat are made by children!!!

       Children are taken away from their parents and from homes so farmers make about $1.27 (1 Euro) to harvest cocoa beans. From the poem “cocoa beans” by Frieda Dennis Cooper the line which touched me the most was. “Little chocolate hands lead to small chocolate faces eyes filled with the hope of more then just $1 a day.” This line in the poem really touched me because little kids have to work and hope for money when sometimes they don’t even get any money. 75% of the world’s cocoa is produced by Ivory Coast and West African countries where there is child labor.In the documentaryThe dark Side of Chocolate we learned that  In Zegoua a village social worker revealed that in 2006 132 children were trafficked. In 2007 140 children were trafficked. 2008-2009 150 children were… RESCUED!!!

       THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW!!! People must be informed about what is happening to children who harvest cocoa from day to night maybe even 24/7. The kids maybe don’t even sleep. They need to know about the kids that get hurt from machetes and poison that make the cocoa grow faster. So that people will send petitions to Hershey to use Fair Trade cocoa in their products of Hershey’s chocolate.

       Think about the chocolate that you eat which is made by little helpless children. That just wanted a $1 for food or to care for their family. So will you help chocolate companies like Hershey's stop using child labor?