Post Conference Prayer Day 23

Find Your Voice. . .Break the Chain

Don't Trade Lives

World Vision Australia

Information:
Don’t Trade Lives is World Vision's advocacy campaign uniting Australians against human trafficking and slavery.  This campaign is a reminder to Americans about what we can do as consumers to stop the demand that feeds the global human trafficking through child slave labor.
Take a look at this Don't Trade Lives document.  Let's make sure that when we purchase items that we know if child labor is being used to produce the products.

Listen to an audio interview with Carol Off, award-winning Canadian investigative journalist and television documentary-maker; co-host of CBC Radio's current affairs program As It Happens about her book Bitter Chocolate: Investigating The Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet.  This interview gives a feel for what is happening to children working as slaves on the Ivory Coast of West Africa in the cocoa fields.  It is astonishing to learn that each chocolate bar that we casually eat in a few minutes takes the amount of cocoa beans that are harvested in three days of hard child labor in these cocoa farms.  Most of the cocoa (43%) used in mass produced chocolate comes from this region of West Africa in the Ivory Coast.  They mention that the cocoa bean originated in Latin America but made its way to Africa because it was cheaper to plant and use the slaves in Africa rather than bring them to America.  So today slavery is still taking place when children are transported from poorer nations and enslaved in the Ivory Coast as workers on over 600,000 farms. Carol Off's suggested solution is that farmers must be paid a living wage.  They need to be able to organize, create coops, and know the price of cocoa so they can be competitive in the market place.  The African government must break up cocoa cartels of transnational companies and not allow that monopoly to exist.  The chocolate from this region is used by Hershey and other famous candy makers.  American Congressmen proposed a policy called the Harken-Engle Protocol stating in essence that the chocolate companies either clean up their act or something would be put on each candy label stating that child labor was used.  Although it was finally passed by American chocolate companies nothing has changed (see below).

In an article found in the Northeastern University Political Review from February 2010 entitle "Bitter Sweets: The Problem of Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry" the Engle-Harken Protocol is mentioned in this context:

"Ten year old Madi, whose family cannot afford to send him to school, spends his days hacking away at cocoa pods with a machete. Such conditions are common in the Ivory Coast’s farms where 43% of the world’s chocolate is produced. Although United States chocolate companies passed a protocol to get rid of “the worst forms of child labor,” conditions have not improved. This article looks to document the negligence and complicit support of child slavery by chocolate manufacturers and the Ivory Coast government, as well as to illustrate several steps which were taken to eradicate the problem.

The economic relationship between Mali and the Ivory Coast is integral in understanding the circumstances which facilitate child labor. Given that Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world with a national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of only $1,200 per person, many people migrate to the Ivory Coast to find work. Some Malian families allow slave traders to take their children as a result of dependence on that income for survival. This trend is intensified by an economy where an education does not guarantee a job, reducing the incentive to send children to school rather than using them for short term economic gain.

Since passing the Harken-Engle Protocol, however, the chocolate industry has failed to make serious changes in their relationship with local farmers. Instead, they cast blame on nongovernmental organizations, such as the International Labor Organization, and the Ivory Coast government for allowing child labor to continue."

The final paragraph of the article sums up what Carol Off was presenting in her book:
"In light of these problems, there is no clear solution for West African cocoa workers. Fair Trade products still account for an exceptionally small part of the market, and are not necessarily an economically feasible solution. Fair Trade products are more expensive to the consumer and forcing farmers to meet Fair Trade certifications might result in less profit. The result would exacerbate problems such as poverty and unemployment, and increase criminal activity in other economic sectors. The Ivory Coast’s government is still war-torn and riddled with corruption. It does not have the means to devote the resources necessary to eradicate child labor, nor does it have compelling incentives to do so. Moreover, binding international resolutions have not made as much of an impact on child labor as they intended to, especially since sanctions have yet to be brought on Mali or the Ivory Coast. The chocolate industry has also come to a decision concerning the plight of African laborers; it is decidedly apathetic. Until it becomes financially disadvantageous to use child labor in the cocoa industry, these practices are likely to continue."

Prayer Focus:
Ask God to stop the child slave trade in the chocolate industry. Ask God to work on the hearts of the cocoa trade giants who are abusing these children because of greed and who knowingly turn an eye to this corruption.  Ask God to reveal and stop the cartels surrounding this industry in the Ivory Coast.  Ask God to make it possible for these farmers to be paid a living wage, to give them the technology so that they know how to fight for a better price by being educated.  Ask God to stop tariffs to America on these cocoa beans so that these farmers can make a fair wage.  Ask God to cause such outrage in countries like America and Australia that these chocolate giants will stop these horrific child labor practices.  Praise God for what World Vision Australia is doing to educate people and expose the truth about the cost in lives through child labor for consumer products.