Dear Mr Easter Bunny,
I was wondering Mr Bunny, where you get the chocolate from that you deliver to my home every Easter. We sure love to eat it by the kilogram at my house. However, I am not sure if you are aware but 70% of cocoa (which is the main ingredient in most chocolate) is supplied by West Africa, mostly the Ivory Coast and some say that as high as 90%* of cocoa farms use child or slave labour in the Ivory Coast. (www.crossing-borders-fair-trade.com/chocolate-slavery.html)
Children aged 12-16 years are kidnapped from some of the world's poorest countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Togo and are taken across the border to work on plantations in the Ivory Coast. Some of these children have been kidnapped on their way to the markets and their parents never have any idea of what has happened to their child or hear from them again. Others are tricked into going to the Ivory Coast with the offer of work and money.
"The US Department of State estimates that more than 109,000 children in Cote d'Ivoire's [Ivory Coast] cocoa industry work under "the worst forms of child labor," and that some 10,000 are victims of human trafficking or enslavement." (www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign)
These children are denied educations, forced to work long gruesome hours without pay, with harsh chemicals, lift heavy bags full of cocoa, sleep locked up at night, and some are even beaten.
Isn't it ironic that you "deliver" chocolate to all the kids around the world, yet use child slaves to produce these treats? Most of the children working on these cocoa plants have never even tasted chocolate, nor do they know what they are harvesting, while children in the west eat it by the kilogram.
Mr. Easter Bunny if I may be so bold, I am not sure why you would have such a process for your cocoa. I thought you liked children? May I also suggest you watch the documentary called "The Dark Side of Chocolate" by Miki Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano, as they go undercover to expose what is really going on within the chocolate industry, found at the following link: www.cultureunplugged.com
"While numerous accusations have been made over the years, so too, have the denials. There is no doubt that laws are in place which prohibit child labour and child trafficking, yet children continue to be victimised. The accused hide behind screwy loop holes in the laws and are sometimes aided by corrupt public officials. The discussion quickly turns into your typical he said, she said, scenario." A quote from "the Dark Side of Chocolate."
I hope you will be challenged this year and that what I may find in the morning is something reflecting your change in heart. So I guess what I am trying to tell you Mr. Easter Bunny is that if you don't plan on delivering to my house Fair Trade chocolate (which you can buy at most grocery stores, just look for the fair trade logo), I don't want you to stop at my house at all. I am not being demanding, but rather a socially conscious Easter egg hunter this year. I don't want to be an encouragement for the cocoa companies to continue enslaving children so I can have what was once deemed a luxury. I am going to make my stance to stop human trafficking.
Yours Truly,
Genevieve
A Further Note
I have also told my friends and they are saying the same thing, so Mr. Easter Bunny or rather Mr. Big chocolate company it is time to change your ways. We want you to know that PEOPLE ARE NOT FOR SALE!! I am not for sale so why should they.
I encourage you to investigate the following website with a list of fair trade chocolate and other products and write letters to chocolate companies not appearing on this list to challenge them with their production of chocolate, informing them you will no longer be purchasing chocolate that is not fair trade. (www.fta.org.au/buy-sell)
Gen Wilson is married with two children who served with YWAM for eight years in Brisbane and now serving in mission in Canada as a modern day abolitionist.