Child labor in Ghana: chocolate with a bitter aftertaste!

Child labor in Ghana: chocolate with a bitter aftertaste!

1060 Wien, Österreich - In Ghana and the Ivory Coast, shocking 1.6 million children work in the cocoa industry, as reports from tagesschau.de reveal and orientation. The reason for this tragic reality is extreme living conditions. Many cocoa farmers cannot afford to deal with adults and are forced to take their own children to work on plantations. These children, often still in primary school age, do serious physical work instead of attending school. The ten -year -old Kofi does not have it easy: he cuts cocoa pods and secretly dreams of going to school, but has to support his mother. "It's very difficult, but I do it anyway," he says, while he is exposed to the dangers of his everyday life with severe tools.

child labor despite legal provisions

Despite existing laws that prohibit child labor in Ghana, enforcement of these regulations remains a major problem. Many cocoa farmers do not have the means of hiring adult workers and are therefore dependent on the help of their children. A farmer representative, Joseph Addo, expresses it: "We don't want to let our children work, but that they go to school." The cocoa lantes, which are of central importance for Ghana and the Ivory Coast, produce 60% of the global cocoa, but farmers only hold a lean proportion of the profits of the chocolate industry. According to Fiifi Boafo from the Ghana Cocoa Board, the lack of support for the development of the cocoa harvest and the future of children.

Aid organizations within Ghans are actively committed to improving the situation, so orientation reports special about the efforts of Sister Regina Ignatia Aflah and her sisters, who try to fight child labor in the region. The situation is multidimensional: while children work, their education falls by the wayside. In the months of the main office between August and December, many classrooms are empty because the children have to help in the fields. In addition, the increased chocolate production has even increased the proportion of child labor in the past ten years, which makes 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, although they have the means to do so, reports Tagesschau.de. The West African states have now given the large manufacturers an ultimatum that is accompanied by possible sanctions. However, it remains to be seen whether these threats will be implemented in action, while the children must continue to carry the main load of this crisis.