12,000 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN TRAFFICKED INTO COCOA FARMS IN COTE D'IVOIRE WHERE ALMOST HALF OF THE WORLDS CHOCOLATE IS PRODUCED
NOW DOES YOUR CHOCOLATE TASTE LESS SWEET?
Chocolate we buy may have been produced using trafficked women, men and children. Stop the Traffik want ALL chocolate factories to stamp their wrappers with a guarantee that the cocoa beans have not been harvested using trafficked labour. Giving us the choice to eat chocolate with a traffik free guaruntee.
What can you do?
1. Commit to only buying 'traffik free' chocolate, such as DIVINE GREEN & BLACK Maya Gold, or halve the amount of chocolate you buy, the drop in sales will force the companies to pay attention
2. Collect chocolate wrappers, string them together and hang them on a local landmark in protest, get your local newspaper to run an article on it.
3. Ask your local supermarket/newsagents to stock 'Traffik Free' chocolate
4. Download the poster and get shops to display it in their window
5. Send a bulk text to your contacts telling them to only eat chocolate with a 'traffik free guarantee'
6. Make a short video of you protesting or handing out flyers, stickers etc. The best will be posted on our myspace page.
7. Put a display or assembly on at school/church/uni use our e-book 'chaga and the chocolate factory' and ideas from our lesson plan.
8. Ask your local MP if he/she condems the use of trafficked children on cocoa farms, video the answer and post it on you tube, send us link and we will post it here too
9.Copy and paste the code below for our banner into your website or blog to raise awareness for STOP THE TRAFFIK.
Diabate and Traore had left their village in Mali to go to Ivory Coast looking for enough money to afford a bicycle, but they were sold to a man who had paid 50,000 West African Franks (about 50 pounds) for the two boys and he wanted the money back in labour. The boys from Sirkasso met about twenty others in the same predicament and learned that no one was ever paid. They slept in a rectangle shaped mud hut that initially had windows but when some boys found they could escape during the night, the windows were sealed shut. Diabate and Traore remember eating mostly bananas, though they would gobble up the cocoa beans, as others did, whenever they got the chance.
Many months passed, and the boys forgot what the purpose had once been for this adventure. Life became a struggle to exist, then hardened to despair. They gave up even thinking of escape. They were under constant threat of beatings if they were caught trying to flee - and they had seen several boys treated savagely - they were actually spooked by a belief that they were under a spell.
Read more in Carol Off's book 'Bitter Chocolate'
Stop The Traffik Chocolate's Friend Space (Top 12)
if you go to my page you can read the blog about the action we have taken at St Julian's Baptist Church in regards to the chocolate campaign. Please feel free to leave comments and encourage others to read the blog and take similar action
Good to see your stand at Spring Harvest and to see some many video clips highlighted during the evening worship time. Thoughts and prayers are with you.
Lawl Charly! Our School Actually Sucks, Its Not Doin Anything About It Although We Had That Talk And Stoof. Plus, It Sucks. Why Cant More Companies Have 'Stop The Traffik' Logos On Them?! I Cant Find ANY That Do So Im With Normal Choc Right Now >=[ Lol. Loveyoo Charly Warly =] x
This is such a good idea :D
u av my full support!!
have the major chocolate companies like cadbury been told about this... so they actually know why their sales are dropping?
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my church is trying to do as much as we possibly can to raise awreness and money for stop the traffik. we're selling things on ebay, doing sponsored walks, sponsored silences, sponsored other stuff.. anyway, i really hope that stop the traffik can stop people traffiking for good!! we pray for stop the traffik as much as possible
Cheers for the add.. all unfair choc banned in my house now much to the dismay of the boys who live with me... but hopefully if enough pressure is applied to the companies who use unethical cocoa it will only be tempory.
i totally agree with everything u r saying. it is so true. since i watched something on tv about our chocolate coming from the ivory coast where slaves are bring forced to get our chocolate i have bought quite a bit of fairtrade chocolate. it is lovely =P
Children MY AGE Deserve To Have A Proper Childhood Before Work. Labour To Children, Or Anybody For That Matter Is Wrong! God Made Us For A Reason, THAT IS NOT THE REASON! I Am Completely Against Traffiking
If Youre Reading This. I Say... HELP US TO STOP THE TRAFFIK! =] x
People My Age SHOULD NOT Have 2 Work Theyre Butts Off. They Desevre A Childhood! Im Sooooo With The Stop The Traffik Campaign And I Now Only Eat Chocolate With The Traffik Free Logo On It. =] x
THIS IS A HUGELY WORTHY CAUSE, PLEASE TRY AND GET INVOLVED. ALSO VISIT STOP THE TRAFFIK'S MYSPACE PAGE AND SIGN THE DECLERATION TO HELP END HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
