The Story of the chocolate by:elvis perdomo

Dear fellow chocoholic,

    Eating chocolate is probably a huge part of your life. You might not be able to go a month!!! Without your favorite Hershy, M&MS ,or other chocolate treat. But do you know how the chocolate you eat is made or who makes it? Oblivious you are of the children who get beaten and threatened to make your favorite chocolate treat that you will die with out. The worst forms of child labor mixed in with the ingredients of the chocolate treat and/or beverage that you eat and /or drink.

  According to the article “Child Savory and Chocolate,” estimations are made that “a half million children work on farms across the Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the worlds supply of cocoa.” But that’s just the half of it. “Hundreds of thousands of children, many of them trafficked across the borders, are engaged in the worst forms of child labor.”

   Children involved in child labor are forced to work all day in precarious environments and are beaten and worked to death. Child labor can damage a child’s self esteem and cause traumas that can affect them for any sort of future references. It can effect them in future jobs and get them fired , or cause them not to get any job at all. So instead of embracing their true potential, these children can only embrace their sadness.

   But this monstrous act can be stopped and children won’t have to suffer any longer. There is something we can all do together as a community. We can raise awareness and vanquish the act of child labor for good. To raise awareness we can reverse trick or treat, which means on Halloween night, children hand back fare trade chocolate instead of receiving chocolate supported by child labor. We can also simply just send letters like this one to the heads of the chocolate companies in the Ivory Coast convincing them to quit child labor. Child labor is a madness that need to be stopped. But if we make the effort to help the children who get beaten and abused to death, this madness can soon be stopped.

                                     Sincerely,

                                 Elvis .A Perdomo