The Tragedy of the Unknown Truth about Chocolate- Nataly Zarzuela

Dear  concerned citizen,

Ow!! My leg is bleeding because I cut myself with my machete while I was cracking the cocoa bean open. This is the life of Abdul as described in the article 'Chocolate child slave' by CNN's David Mckenzie

Children work all day just to find  cocoa beans and open them to take out the part that the companies use to make our delicious chocolate.Cocoa beans come from the west coast of Africa in the Ivory coast. An organization called the UNICEF estimated that 'nearly a half of million  children work on farms across the Ivory coast ."thousands of children have been trafficked across borders".

Children have been hurt many times but do not know what to do.Their have given up hope about their feelings of freedom Kids my age experience verbal,physical and sexual  harassment because they are taken and have restrictions on their freedom. Kids move to cocoa farms without their biological parents or legal guardians.

Reverse trick or treating is an effort to raise awareness about the prevalence of child labor on cocoa farms in west africa . In other words it is a group of people on Halloween  who have fair trade chocolate and instead of receiving it,they give it to young trick or treaters .Fair trade chocolate pays farmers a fair amount of money so they won't have to hire children 18 to work on cocoa fields.

Hershey's chocolate company has a commitment to keep by 2020. The company has to have 100 percent certified cocoa .We have to help children in child labor all over Africa.Child labor is the worst form of labor.