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 

Jeanette Perez 601 The addicted lover

                                  The Addicted Lover


Dear chocoholic,
                                                                                                              Industries around the world don't know the dark side of chocolate. Industries that sell chocolate are blinded by the money. People around the world are trying to stop these blinded people and child abuse. In ,'' Child slavery and chocolate : all too easy to find '', they show the truth.


     Can you imagine the harsh pain children have to go through to get cocoa? Children are forced to work in farms working dangerous roles. One of the roles for the children in the farms is to collect cocoa beans from the trees. Children get injured all over their bodies because of the large machetes. According to,'' Child slavery and chocolate : all too easy to find '','' .... scars crisscross Yacou's legs from a machete. He cant clear grass in the cocoa fields without cutting himself.''

     Ther're  many ways to avoid eating child labor chocolate. Reverse trick or treating is one way to avoid chocolate made from child labor. Reverse trick or treating is when kids give out fair trade chocolate for Halloween. Fair trade chocolate is chocolate that is not made from child labor. According to,'' In 2001 to ensure that their products are not grown and processed on farms where the       '' worst forms of child labor.'' Such as trafficking children and compulsory labor, persist.

         In conclusion, children are suffering around the world because of chocolate lovers. Making a change about child labor is just the beginning. Governments haven't taken full effect over the cause. But making a little change can be a big difference. 



                                                                                                                            Sincerely,
                                                                                                                 Jeanette Perez

"The Madness of Chocolate" by: Brandon Soto

                                                                              

  Dear chocolate cravers,

   

   “Swoosh” goes the machete while it vigorously cuts down the cocoa pods off the cocoa trees. Their masters yelling, “No lollygagging!” Then all of a sudden you hear “whip” as the men beat the children with whips. Harmful chemicals splatter on their wounds while they crack open cocoa pods. While we devour the chocolate we can’t live without, children in West Africa are starving left, right, and center. Most popular chocolate brands use child labor to get their chocolate. We think that companies should be fair, make adults work, make adults, and pat them fairly.

  

   According to the text “Child Slavery and Chocolate” “Yacou can’t clear grass in the cocoa fields without cutting himself.” This sentence represents how child labor impacts the health of the children. When the children cut the grass to clear the way they sometimes cut their legs. Since some of them are 5-8 years of age, it’s difficult for the children to hold and use the machetes. When they go to open the cocoa pods the chemicals splatter on their face and cuts. When the chemicals gets on their cuts it burns and it gets really infected. They also get whipped by the adults if they slack off.

    

   Cocoa comes from different parts of the world but we are going to be focusing on the Ivory Coast in Africa. Children are shipped there from other countries. On farms, the children take machetes and cut down cocoa pods from cocoa trees. After that they cut the pods open to expose the sticky cocoa beans. According to the video, “The Dark Side of Chocolate” the children take the cocoa beans and dry them up on banana leaves. When people ship children illegally it’s called trafficking. Like what I said earlier this paragraph, they ship kids country to country usually with land vehicles like cars, buses, and motorcycles. Even though trafficking is illegal we still sell products that use trafficking. According to the text “Child Slavery and Chocolate” UNICEF estimates nearly half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast.

   

   There are some things we can do to stop or prevent child labor. For example, in the article “Reverse Trick-or-Treat” children give out fair trade chocolate to raise awareness of child labor. Instead of Chocolate being given to children, the children give chocolate out. This shows how fair trade chocolate is better than child labor chocolate. Fair trade is when there is no child labor to make the chocolate and that the farmers are getting paid fairly. In “Reverse Trick-or-Treaters” Gaurav Noronha said, “The farmers from whom this company gets the cocoa, they are paid fairly. Usually farmers are not paid well enough.” This quote explains how fair trade cocoa farmers are paid more than other farmers. This is only one way how you can raise awareness.

   

   In conclusion, children get cuts on their legs that get extremely infected by the chemicals. They also get whipped from the adults. One way to raise awareness is to reverse trick-or-treat. You can also advertise like make a stand around the corner and sell fair trade chocolate and say what children go through to make us chocolate.

                                                                                                

                                                                                                 Yours Sincerely,

                                                                                                Brandon Soto

                    

                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                            

The chocolate we eat is not what you think! by Michael Rodriguez

Dear chocoholic,

Have you ever thought of many children suffering child labor? Would you spread the word about it? Would you help them? Think about it. Kids risk lives just to make chocolate. The chocolate we enjoy is the chocolate that the children suffer farming all day all night.

Kids suffer while just trying to farm cocoa pods. Kids chop down the cocoa pods. Suppose the kids that are suffering child labor are your kids. What would you do? According to “Child Labor and Chocolate” it states that he(Abdul) squats with a gang of a dozen harvesters on an ivory cost farm.” This means that these kids have started from a young age just like Abdul (from the CNN chocolate child slaves ) he has been trafficked.

People have been warned about child labor. People try doing something about it but there’re still

over half a million children

forced into child labor in the Ivory Coast. Kids suffer every second, for example right now kids are suffering from injuries.

 Would you try your best to help kids like this that are suffering from child labor?

  

Where does your chocolate come from? Jaylin Morillo 601

 Where does your chocolate come from?

Dear chocoholic, 

Put the chocolate down!! You eat chocolate everyday but yet you don’t know where it comes from. Some children’s have never had a child hood because guess what they’re doing, there making chocolate for others. They make chocolate everyday but they have never tasted chocolate. They suffer a lot. They get cut with machetes and they get burned with the chemicals form the plants, and all of this isn’t even the beginning. According to the article child slavery and chocolate: all too easy to find, “scars crisscross yacous legs from a machete.”

 There are a lot of INSANE people in this world, especially people that own child labor businesses. Children are sent out to cut cocoa pods with machetes. The plants have a chemical that burns your skin plus the sun beams on their skin as well. These kids don’t even get to sleep and if they do it’s like 2 hours. Do you think that’s enough sleep for a child?

The courses of actions you could take are buying fair trade chocolate. Fair trade chocolate is chocolate that isn’t made by child labor. According to the article “Don’t be tricked by Halloween treats “, “…times have changed in the United States ,yet children across the globe still work under unconscionable conditions to satisfy our sweet tooth”

All the chocolate we enjoy is made from pain. Little children suffering to pick the football sized cocoa beans. Just for their milky white cocoa beans, to make chocolate we eat.                                                                                                                                                          Sincerely,                                                                                                                      Jaylin Morillo

Chocolate Origins by Eduardo Ramos 601

Dear Chocolate lover,

         Can you imagine that chocolate is mostly made by suffering little hands? Well those hands are the hands of suffering children. These children work very hard every day in farms. Some don’t get paid, harvesting cocoa beans to make chocolate. Some kids haven’t even tasted chocolate. Some risk their lives for their work especially with tools like the machetes. Child labor is used on cocoa plantations to produce the chocolate we love.

         There are some news teams like CNN (Chocolate Child Slaves) that have brought to light about child labor being used. Some have written articles, books, and poems about child labor. There are a lot of children who do hazardous work for no money. But these children are putting their lives at risk, just for making chocolate. They might get hurt harvesting cocoa beans, with the machetes or chemicals. Some kids are trafficked or taken away from their families. Welcome to the life of a 7 year old boy named Abdul. He was trafficked away from his parents. He is uneducated, treated unfairly, etc. His life is like other children doing unfair labor. There’s is a poem that Frieda Dennis Cooper wrote. There was a line that spoke to me, which was “Wishes of a comfy bed and enough food to stop the pangs they’ve come to know all too well.” This demonstrates that, they barely get any rest, food, and care. They are treated like slaves.

We need to stop this madness by protesting to companies and put pressure on them. We can sign a petition for this. We can make people aware what’s going on outside the United States. It’s just like Reverse Trick or Treating. It is during Halloween, when kids hand back their own Fair Trade Certified organic dark chocolate. Fair Trade Chocolate is “a program guarantees farmers a minimum price for their output, enforces fair labor conditions(prohibiting forced labor) and encourages environmental sustainability”(line from Don’t Be Tricked by Halloween treats by Ben Block).

 No matter what, this child labor needs to stop. Children are people, too.                        

                                                                                             Sincerely,

                                                                                         Eduardo Ramos

Blood Chocolate by Randy Garcia

Dear Chocolate Lover

          Wwwwssshh! That’s the sound of a whip. Barbarous people forcing kids to work at a young age with no pay or little pay harvesting cocoa beans in the Ivory Coast. Welcome to the life of 7 year old Abdul. He is a child slave in Ivory Coast cracking cocoa beans and dumping the milky white cocoa beans in a pile.

                Children play a critical role on cocoa plantations. Children harvest the football size cocoa beans with machetes. The children are brought to be put to work in cocoa farms  and even trafficked to the Ivory Coast. When trafficked, they are separated from their families. Children crack the cocoa beans and  then they ferment the beans with banana leaves. Can you imagine cocoa industry signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol to eliminate cocoa grown using forced child labor. But they are still using cocoa beans harvested using forced child labor.

Children working in cocoa plantations get injuries either from the pesticides or from the machetes. When harvesting the cocoa beans the children can have accidents cutting down the cocoa beans and cut themselves. When cutting down the cocoa beans their skin starts burning because of the pesticide. The video ‘’The Darkside of Chocolate‘’ showed a girl about the age of 9 with scars and bruises on her body all bloody.

          Some courses of action are reverse trick treating. Reverse trick or treating is kids giving fair trade chocolate during Halloween.Fair trade chocolate that is not made with child labor and pay the farmers a well amount of money. Reverse trick or treating is way to try to raise awareness of child labor in cocoa farms. In conclusion, those are the dangers of child labor in the Ivory Coast. Children play a critical role in the Ivory Coast.

 People need to be aware of the story behind a lot of the chocolate they eat.

                                                                   Yours truly

                                                                   Randy Garcia