Child labor in Ghana: Chocolate with a bitter aftertaste!

Child labor in Ghana: Chocolate with a bitter aftertaste!

In Ghana and Ivory Coast, a shocking 1.6 million children work in the cocoa industry, as reports from tagesschau.de and Orientation Spezial reveal. The reason for this tragic reality is extreme living conditions. Many cocoa farmers cannot afford to employ adults and are forced to take their own children with them to work on the plantations. These children, often still of primary school age, do heavy physical work instead of attending school. Ten-year-old Kofi doesn't have it easy: he cuts cocoa pods and secretly dreams of going to school, but he has to support his mother. “It's very difficult, but I do it anyway,” he says, as he faces the dangers of his everyday life with heavy tools.

Child labor despite legal regulations

Despite existing laws prohibiting child labor in Ghana, enforcement of these regulations remains a major problem. Many cocoa farmers do not have the means to employ adult workers and therefore rely on their children for help. As a farmer representative, Joseph Addo, puts it: “We don’t want our children to work, we want them to go to school.” The cocoa plantations that are central to Ghana and Ivory Coast produce 60% of the world's cocoa, yet farmers keep a meager share of the chocolate industry's profits. According to Fiifi Boafo from the Ghana Cocoa Board, the lack of support is of great concern for the development of the cocoa crop and the future of children.

Aid organizations within Ghan are actively working to improve the situation, with Orientation Special reporting on the efforts of Sister Regina Ignatia Aflah and her sisters, who are trying to combat child labor in the region. The situation is multidimensional: while children work, their education falls by the wayside. During the peak harvest months between August and December, many classrooms are empty as children have to help in the fields. In addition, increased chocolate production over the last ten years has actually increased the proportion of child labor, making the entire situation even more precarious.

The big question remains: Where are those responsible for the chocolate industry? Human rights organizations criticize that large companies such as Nestlé and Mars have failed to completely eliminate child labor, even though they have the means to do so, reports tagesschau.de. The West African states have now given the major manufacturers an ultimatum, which is accompanied by possible sanctions. But whether these threats will be translated into action remains to be seen as children continue to bear the brunt of this crisis.