END Child Labour! profile picture

END Child Labour!

About Me


FACTS
An estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labour.
171 million of these children work in hazardous conditions – including working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides or with dangerous machinery.
Millions of others work under horrific circumstances. They may be are trafficked (1.2 million), forced into debt bondage or other forms of slavery (5.7 million), forced into prostitution and/or pornography (1.8 million) or recruited as child soldiers in armed conflict (300,000).
Every year, 22,000 children die in work-related accidents.
8.4 million children are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities.
121 million children around the world between the ages of 6 and 11 are denied the chance to go to school.
There are between 60 and 115 million child laborers in India. Atleast 15 million of them work as boned child laborers.This is also a problem in Pakistan and Nepal.
In India and Nepal there are an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children who work as bonded laborers making carpets. Shop owners claim they need the good eyesight and fine fingers of children to make the carpets.
MUST READ ARTICLECHILD SLAVERY - On African Cocoa Farms
by NOOSHIN SHABANI, guest writer
Most of our children play with teddy bears, children in West Africa play with Machetes. Why? , so you can enjoy your cup of coffee.
Coffee culture is rapidly growing, and with it, the demand for the mocha flavoring that gives it its distinctive chocolate flavor. And of course, the demand for chocolate never seems to stop. For every bar we buy more children are forced into child slavery on cocoa farms. Over 67% of Cocoa comes from West Africa. As the trading wheel of injustice spins, children are tortured, farmers go hungry, and large companies such as Cadburys make a profit. When we consume more chocolate the demand for cocoa increases, and so farmers can make money to feed there family from the fruits of there labour.
Unfortunately that is not the case as it’s the corrupted trading system which dictates the price.
Instead global companies charge high prices for there products but refuse to pay a fair price for Cocoa beans, the primary ingredient needed for the coffee and chocolate they sell. As a result farmers sell there beans to middlemen who then negotiate trading prices to sell on to companies. Farmers only receive half the amount of money they are originally bought for as the middleman receives the rest. In most cases they may not make a profit. Desperate farmers transform into corrupted farmers and become involved in the business of child trafficking. Young children wandering the streets of Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire are lured by traffickers who promise them a life where they can earn an honest wage so they don’t go hungry.
Opportunity knocks at the wrong door as children are then abducted and sold to farmers as slaves.
They are forced into painful work, long days in inhumane conditions without pay and with little food. Work includes using machetes to cut the cacao pods from high branches, and applying pesticides without protective equipment. Dangerous days and fearful nights is the typical day in the life of child slaves. Young children are psychologically deceived into staying on the farm. If they are brave enough to make an attempt to escape home to there parents they are beating, whipped, and tortured.
Over 240,000 children have been sold as slaves in West Africa to work on coffee, cocoa, and cotton plantations, 15,000 children are aged between 9-12. While our children get an education children we have forgotten about dream of such opportunities. They don’t get the luxury of education; instead they get a tortured life of abuse and daily beatings so you can have your Mars bar.
It’s a tricky cycle to break as cocoa beans produced by slaves are hard to detect. Once the farmer gives his goods to the middleman to sell, the beans are taken to a warehouse and mixed with the beans produced by paid workers. At this stage companies play the blame game by stating they have no way of detecting which beans are from slave free farms. If we refuse to use all cocoa then farmers would be under more pressure which would result in more cases of child slavery.
Global companies need to make there products fair trade. If they pay the farmers a minimum wage, farmers are obliged to form an agreement which states there working standards are democratic with no slavery and cocoa is of good quality. Direct business will mean the middleman is no longer needed and farmers can reap what they sow. it all sounds very fair and simple so why don’t all products have the fair trade label on? Because companies like nestle are quite happy making 65 billion a year.
While we blissfully sip our hot chocolate, we are tasting the blood of another child.
How can I help, http://www.stopchildpoverty.org./live/daytoday/
Proverbs 13.23 “A poor mans field may produce abundant food, but injustice sweeps it away”
SOURCE UNICEF
GLOBAL EXCHANGE
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (Geneva)
INFORM OTHERS OF THINGS YOU HAVE LEARNED! PASS IT ON! MAYBE ONE DAY THIS WONT BE HAPPENING!

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Watch These Video's- Get Informed!
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Child Labour occurs everyday, all around the world
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Check out this Video, besure to read the transcript below
This is a part of the transcript.

NLC: Hanes is a very big North American company and Hanes tells the American people that in factories, such as Harvest Rich, Hanes has a strict corporate code of conduct posted on the wall for all the workers to see and it guarantees the workers that their legal rights will be respected, that they will be treated with dignity, that they will be paid correctly and on time, that they’ll be paid their overtime correctly, that there will be no physical abuse, ever, that there will be no child labor, ever. Hanes guarantees the American people that its clothing is made under decent conditions and that they monitor those factories to guarantee that the conditions meet all international standards. What do you say to this?

MALE WORKER: I think Hanes is telling lies. In our factory we are treated harshly. The supervisors beat us, we are cheated on overtime, they don’t pay us correctly or on time and we are treated badly by our supervisors, but they don’t see that these violations are going on.

NLC: What happens when the corporate monitors come into the factory?

MALE WORKER: When buyers come then the factory management cleans the factory and they tell us, the management tells us to tell lies. If we don’t tell the lie, then all the workers are scared of losing their jobs. So, they tell us to say that we are paid correctly, we are paid on time, and they treat us decently. They force us to tell this to the monitors.

NLC: How come the monitors cannot see the child workers?

MALE WORKER: When the buyers come, they don’t visit the factory, they just walk. They don’t ask any workers how we are treated, if we are beaten, at all. Sometimes they only talk to the management, but the management, sometimes they send the workers back to their homes or they set them aside in another part of the factory.

NLC: You mean the children? They hide the children.

TRANSLATOR: Yes.

NLC: The monitors must be stupid people, because why can’t they go to the factory unannounced or why can’t they go to the factory at night to see if it is open or why can’t they go to the factory on a Friday to see that it is working on the holidays. Why are the monitors so ignorant?

MALE WORKER: It seems that the corporate code of conduct, that the compliance officers or monitors have a close relationship with the owner. They have some business and meetings and they don’t see the workers’ side or the treatment of the workers, how they are treated in the factory.

NLC: Does anybody help you, the workers in the factory, to gain your rights?

MALE WORKER: There is nobody.

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Lyrics

Read Them. Think About Them.

Oasis - All Around The World

It's a bit early in the midnight hour for me

To go through all the things that I want to be

I don't believe in everything I see

Y'know I'm blind so why d'you disagree

So take me away cos I just don't want to stay

And the lies you make me say

Are getting deeper every day

These are crazy days but they make me shine

Time keeps rolling by

All around the world, you've got to spread the word

Tell them what you've heard

We're gonna make a better day

All around the world, you've got to spread the word

Tell them what you've heard

You know it's gonna be o.k.

So what you gonna do when the walls come falling down?

You never move you never make a sound

So where you gonna swim with the riches that you found?

If you're lost at sea I hope that you've drowned

Jet - Shine On

Please don't cry

You know I'm leaving here tonight

Before I go I want you to know that there will always be a light

And if the moon had to runaway

And all the stars didn't wanna play

Don't waste the sun on a rainy day

The wind will soon blow it all away, ya

So many times I planned

To be much more than who I am

And if I let you down I will follow you 'round until you understand

That if the moon had to runaway

And all the stars didn't wanna play

Don't waste the sun on a rainy day

The wind will soon blow it all away, ya, oh ya

When the days all feel the same

Don't feel the cold or wind or rain

Everything will be okay

We will meet again one day

And I will shine on, for everyone

So please don't cry

Although I leave you here this night

Where I go how far I don't know

But I will always be your light

That if the moon had to runaway

And all the stars didn't wanna play

Don't waste the sun on a rainy day

The wind will soon blow it all away, ya, oh ya

When the days all seem the same

Don't feel the cold or wind or rain

Everything will be okay

We will meet again one day

I will shine on, for everyone

Shine on, for everyone

When the stars all look the same

Don't feel the cold or wind or rain

Everything will be okay

We will meet again one day

I will shine on, for everyone

Shine on, for everyone

Sarah McLachlan - In The Arms Of An Angel

Spend all your time waiting

For that second chance

For a break that would make it okay

There’s always one reason

To feel not good enough

And it’s hard at the end of the day

I need some distraction

Oh beautiful release

Memory seeps from my veins

Let me be empty

And weightless and maybe

I’ll find some peace tonight

In the arms of an angel

Fly away from here

From this dark cold hotel room

And the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage

Of your silent reverie

You’re in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort there

So tired of the straight line

And everywhere you turn

There’s vultures and thieves at your back

And the storm keeps on twisting

You keep on building the lie

That you make up for all that you lack

It don’t make no difference

Escaping one last time

It’s easier to believe in this sweet madness oh

This glorious sadness that brings me to my knees

In the arms of an angel

Fly away from here

From this dark cold hotel room

And the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage

Of your silent reverie

You’re in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort there

You’re in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort here

Shania Twain- God Bless The Child (Extended Version)

Hallelujah, hallelujah,

God bless the child who suffers

Hallelujah, hallelujah,

God bless the young without mothers

This child is homeless,

That child's on crack

One plays with a gun,

While the other takes a bullet in his back

This boy's a beggar,

That girl sells her soul

They both work the same street,

The same hell hole

Hallelujah, hallelujah,

God bless the child who suffers

Hallelujah, hallelujah,

Let every man help his brother

Some are born addicted and some are just thrown away

Some have daddies who make them play games they don't want to play

But with hope and faith

We must understand

All God's children need is love

And us to hold their little hands

This boy is hungry, he ain't got enought to eat

That girl's cold and she ain't got no shoes on her feet

When a child's spirit's broken

And feels all hope is gone

God help them find the strength to carry on

But with hope and faith

Yea, we can understand

All God's children need is love

And us to hold their little hands

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Let us all love one another

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Make all our hearts blind to color

Hallelujah, hallelujah

God bless the child who suffers

Click Here to Visit The Butterfly Foundation

My Blog

"Just do.... THE RIGHT THING !"

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Last week I watched a very interesting episode of America's Most Wanted. During this episode they featured a story about a celebrity, Daryl Hanna, who went undercover to exploit sex slavery. From wa...
Posted by on Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:34:00 GMT

Gold? -By Amie Blog 3

Gold, we all love it. People pay thousands of dollars for certain pieces of jewlery. Where does the gold come from? It is found in different mines and quarries all over the world. I find it hard to im...
Posted by on Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:06:00 GMT

Chocolate and Child Labour - By Amie - Blog 2

Most people love chocolate. Think about all of the companies that make chocolate. Cote d'Ivoire is a Western African country and it's one of the leading exports of cocoa beans in the world. Who do you...
Posted by on Sat, 11 Nov 2006 05:53:00 GMT

What it all comes down to is.. (Blog 2. maddy)

I was reading an article from the Hamilton Spectator a few weeks ago. This article was about the new ban on child labour in India. This article was titled "India's young workers worried by new law ban...
Posted by on Sun, 12 Nov 2006 12:37:00 GMT

Child Soldier Victims By: Vicky

V.L There is approximately 218 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 that are victims of child labour. About 300,000 of those children are 'child soldiers' that are forced to go to war in over...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Nov 2006 10:42:00 GMT

Vicky wants you to Make a Difference

V.L Did you know that of about 250 million children around the world subjected to child labour, approximately 70% work in agriculture?! That leads to working long hours exposed to the sun, toxic ...
Posted by on Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:33:00 GMT

Maddy's Child Labour 101

Did you know that it is estimated that 23% of all children ages 5 -11 are employed each year. Almost half of these children are made to work in area's that are likely to harm their health, safety and ...
Posted by on Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:30:00 GMT

Amie's Definition of Child Labor -Blog 1

Definition of Child Labor: the gainful employment of children below an age determined by law or custom. Definition of Bonded Child Labor: children working in conditions of servitude in order to pay ...
Posted by on Sun, 29 Oct 2006 05:33:00 GMT