HOW MUCH CHOCOLATE DO YOU EAT IN A WEEK?
One form of trafficking is the use of children to harvest the cocoa beans on farms in Cote D'Ivoire. These children are likely to be working to make your chocolate.
Where did all the chocolate come from? Nearly half the world's chocolate is made from cocoa grown in the Cote D'Ivoire, in Africa.
AN ESTIMATED 12,000 children have been trafficked into cocoa farms in Cote D'Ivoire When we buy chocolate we are being forced to be oppressors ourselves as we do not know that the chocolate we eat is 'traffik free'.
SHOW US THAT YOUR CHOCOLATE IS TRAFFIK FREE We want all chocolate companies to be able to stamp onto their chocolate wrappers a symbol that tells us the cocoa beans have not been harvested by trafficked labour. We can then choose to eat chocolate that we know is TRAFFIK FREE.
Diabate and Traoré had left their village in Mali to go to Ivory Coast looking for enough money to afford a bicycle, but they were sold to a man who had paid 50,000 West African Francs (about £50) for the two boys and he wanted the money back—in labour. The boys from Sirkasso met about twenty others in the same predicament and learned that no one was ever paid. They slept in a rectangle-shaped mud hut that initially had windows but when some boys found they could escape during the night, the windows were sealed shut. Diabate and Traoré remember eating mostly bananas, though they would gobble up the cocoa beans, as others did, whenever they got the chance. Many months passed, and the boys forgot what the purpose had once been for this adventure. Life became a struggle to exist, then hardened to despair. They gave up thinking of escape. They were under constant threat of beatings if they were caught trying to flee—and they had seen several boys treated savagely—they were actually spooked by a belief that they were under a spell. Read more in Carol Off's book "Bitter Chocolate".

STOP THE TRAFFIK Chocolate Campaign is about ACTION and CHANGE.
The customer needs to know who picked the cocoa beans that make chocolate.
The retailer needs to know that their customers will change what they buy to force the chocolate industry to change their practices.
The chocolate manufacturers need to realise that this is the time to:SIGN THE CHOCOLATE PLEDGEKEEP THEIR ORIGINAL PROMISESAnd GIVE US TRAFFIK FREE CHOCOLATE NOW
WHAT TO DODrown your town in coupons! Download our coupon by following this link. Give this to the retailer when you pay for your chocolate. Carry the coupons around in your wallet, purse or bag and every time you buy chocolate—give it in. Let all the chocolate retailers in your neighbourhood know why you are buying fair trade chocolate and encourage them to sign the pledge, join the campaign and provide chocolate that is TRAFFIK FREE.
Follow this link for further chocolate campaign actions
BREAKING NEWS—A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
On 10th October 2007, major global players in the food industry initiated a programme for a more sustainable cocoa supply chain in the Ivory Coast, to improve social and environmental practices. This is a key decision that could lead to ending the trafficking of children into slavery on cocoa farms.
One of these global players is Cargill, an international provider of food and other products and services in 66 countries, and a major buyer and processor of cocoa beans from Ivory Coast. (This could affect many of the chocolate products that you buy in your supermarket)
At the beginning of 2008, a draft farm level certification code will be tested in pilot projects in Ivory Coast. Local stakeholders including farmers, charities, government bodies, and others will be involved in its development. By the end of 2008, the first independent certifiers will have been trained and the final code will be implemented. Throughout 2009, the project will certify the first 10,000 farmers in Ivory Coast, and pilot projects will be carried out in other producing countries to customise the programme to their specific circumstances.
THIS IS BIG NEWS
This is a first step … and STOP THE TRAFFIK welcomes this new initiative by Cargill and calls to see this become a reality.
It is critical we keep pressure up on this issue. We are making a difference. We will not stop until the trafficking has been STOPPED.
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THE COCOA PLEDGE
We want our chocolate to be Traffik Free. We have developed this into a Cocoa Pledge for use by the industry. Read it by going to the link at: www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolateDownloads/stt_pledge.pdf
We are calling all chocolate manufacturers and retailers to SIGN the pledge.
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GLOBAL CATCH UP

The Chocolate Campaign is global. All over the world from Australia to America, Belgium to Burnley there has been a grassroots movement of thousands of people fighting hard to raise awareness and fight for Traffik Free chocolate. Every day it is growing.
WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?
Do you remember the ICI (International Cocoa Initiative)? This is the body that was set up in 2001 as part of the Harkin-Engel protocol, to help fight human trafficking in the cocoa supply chain. Although the ICI has worked to establish community projects to fight trafficking, Industry has not supported them enough to make a significant impact. Industry has also failed to deliver on certifying that only farms free from trafficked labour can supply the cocoa that makes our chocolate. Now Industry only talks about making a survey and reporting progress—a far cry from the certification that they promised. We are placing our Cocoa Pledge, which has growing international support (see the web site), as the best response to a failed industry protocol.