Monday, June 23, 2014

Stolen Childhoods by Jeziel Santana

                                                                                                       Dear Chocoholic,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Can you imagine being in a hot place near the Ivory Coast working hard at picking cocoa beans non-stop? This is the sad reality most kids face everyday. Many famous chocolate brands such as Nestle practice child labor although they do deny it.                                                                                                                                               
The kids are exposed to many harmful substances such as pesticides which may even kill them. These kids can be as young as 5yrs old. The kids are brutally beat when they don’t do as told. They work long and hardly get paid. The children hardly have any rest. And they don’t have fun like normal children and don’t even go to school. Surprisingly enough none of the children have ever eaten chocolate.                                                          
  These kids don’t even know what freedom means. These kids think that this is what’s right they think this is what they belong doing. They think that being brutally beat and being used as slaves is correct. Most of the kids family are poor and their parents send them their so they can get money. The kids are not paid and no money is given to the family. This is the sad reality how can someone be so cruel?                                                        
  However not all chocolate has this tragic back story some chocolates are certified Fair Trade which means the chocolate has nothing to do with child labor. The farmers that do work there are paid fairly so they can take care of their family.                                         
We should all help raise awareness about this awful situation. We can send letters to these companies showing how much we care if they see we care they would listen. Tell other people about the truth about chocolate and encourage them to buy Fair Trade chocolate.                                                                                                                                          Before we buy chocolate we should all check if we can find the fair trade chocolate logo. If we do we would be helping the world one step at a time.

No comments:

Post a Comment