Ivory Coast cocoa farms child labour: Little change

A lot of people have missed this one in the past, and still miss it today. From the story:

Silently, the children squatted down and started work. They wore torn and grubby shorts and T-shirts. There was no laughter or play. On their legs were scars from machete injuries. There was no first aid kit around or any protective clothing. In one hand they held a cocoa pod. With the other they hacked it open with a machete, then prized out the beans. Under the present system, once sold to market, it is impossible to trace exactly where the beans came from - and whether or not young children are being forced to work to produce them. At first, the farm's owner insisted that three of the boys were his sons and that two belonged to a friend. But when I asked for their names, he hesitated - then left.

One of the children was Kuadio Kouako who said he was 12 and whose home was more than 320km (200 miles) away. "I was living in Bouake with my grandmother," Yao Kouassi said. "But my father sent me here to work. I haven't seen my family for three years." Yao's story is depressingly familiar among children trafficked or sent away from their families and kept out of school and working for no money.

There are ways to get Fair Trade chocolate (think of brands like Divine or Theo) that is sourced from responsible farms that don't hire child labor and pay their workers living wages under safe conditions. But for too many of us, that is not convenient. Aargh.

Clipping to multiple groups.