Image Above: These are recruits captured by traffickers that are enslaved and forced to harvest cocoa beans.
We, the students at Central York High School, have decided that instead of questioning why no one is taking action, we should ourselves. In order to accomplish our goal of exploiting and ending slave-tainted chocolate companies, we have split our classes up into teams. One group has written letters to send to chocolate companies and supermarkets. The main purpose of these letters was to remind and put pressure on companies that they are using child slaves to make their chocolate. We have sent a letter to the Hershey's corporation and Nestle, but recently we have tried to get the heat off of the backs of the Hershey company, because they have made a claim that they are currently trying to fix the problem. The African government has denied the fact that children being smuggled over the border by buses or through back roads. However, the African government is taking to steps to eradicate the trafficking by increasing security and monitoring back roads for traffickers.
What is Happening?
Children as young as 10 years old are being tricked into following kidnappers away from their homes and forced into labor in cocoa plantations. Many of these kids are from the countries of Niger, Nigeria, Mali, and Ghana. Côte d’Ivoire A.K.A. The Ivory Coast is the main country in which the children are smuggled into. Cocoa businesses within The Ivory Coast are capturing these young children due to their amount of energy and because they are cheap to pay and maintain.
How is it Happening?
People known as "traffickers" are deceiving the minds of young African children, telling them if they leave their home for a "vacation" they will get money to pay for food and other supplies. These kids are smuggled illegally into The Ivory Coast by back roads and secret checkpoints. Government officials have admitted to the fact that children are being kidnapped and sold. Once inside the plantations, the children are used to harvest cocoa pods from the trees using machetes. It is hard and strenuous work, even for adults. these companies are unethical.