Chocolate is one of the most delicious tasting candy/sweets that someone could ever come across. When people are eating chocolate they do not know the hard work that is behind each chocolate bar. Some kids who have never tasted chocolate before and tasted the hard work they have done to create this treat are forced to work in Cocoa bean farms in West Africa. Chocolates are made from cocoa beans which are in pods that grow on trees, there are about 50 to 60 beans in each pod.
Some kids work 8 hours a day in the Cocoa bean farm to gain that little bit extra money so they can provide for their families. One of the main problems in Ghana is the trafficking of kids to work in the cocoa bean farms and kids being forced out their homes or villages just to find jobs. These kids work in dangerous and hazardous conditions and in a very terrible environment, sometimes kids are beaten up if they choose not to do the work. One of the kids explained how his mother would not feed him unless he had done the work and there was also a young girl who had started working in the cocoa bean farm when she was only 9 years old. Primary schools are available for these kids and is also for free so they do not have to pay but the parents suggest that they should work instead of getting an education. Some parents agree that having the kids work at a very young age is not a good idea especially knowing how dangerous it is but because of the lack of money and resources kids are forced work to provide for their families.
Big chocolate companies are trying the best they can to make it more safer for the kids working on the cocoa farms and trying to stop it but Cadbury has promised to use fair trade cocoa in one of their candy bars. Some traffickers pay some parents for their kids then they take the kids to the cocoa farm. Traffickers pay around $20 to the parents to have their kids.
The Ghanaian Government is trying their best to get these kids off the farm and into school. The government has already paid for the childrens uniform and books just to make it easier on the parents and so the kids get an opportunity to have a good education. Farmers are now starting to realise the benefits of fair trade, they get a guaranteed fair price on their beans if they join the union. The money that is made on the beans go to the community and the kids do not have to work in dangerous conditions. An outcome of using fair trade beans they managed to pay for a water pump which provides fresh clean water for everyone, they also bought a corn mill with the money they made from fair trade.
A way we could stop these kids from working in the farm is if we buy fair trade chocolate bars because it has a greater impact on the life of the people that are living in West Africa. If we buy fair trade chocolate bars kids won’t be forced to work in farms and the kids will be able to attend school and have freedom.
