Links: Slavery in the News

  Yes! Magazine: This Halloween, a new breed of activists is coming to your door: They’re costumed, committed, and about four and a half feet tall: “Emilie, a seventh-grader from North Bend, Wash., was shocked when her best friend, Rachel Donka, told her that the Hershey bars and other chocolate products she loved came, in […]
October 29, 2010

 

  • Yes! Magazine: This Halloween, a new breed of activists is coming to your door: They’re costumed, committed, and about four and a half feet tall:

    “Emilie, a seventh-grader from North Bend, Wash., was shocked when her best friend, Rachel Donka, told her that the Hershey bars and other chocolate products she loved came, in part, from the labor of kids in places like Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Indonesia. “Most people don’t know about this,” she reflected later, “so I wanted to understand what went into the things I used. And I wanted other people to start asking questions, too.”

    This year both girls are participating in Reverse Trick-or-Treating, an annual tradition initiated four years ago by activists promoting fair wages and treatment for farmers. Instead of just going door to door asking for candy, an anticipated quarter of a million Reverse Trick-or-Treaters are bringing the chocolate to you—fairly traded, bite-sized morsels glued to cards that explain widespread human rights violations occurring on non-fair trade cacao farms around the world.

  • The Salt Lake Tribune: Modern slavery widespread in U.S., Brigham Young University conference told

    “‘These days it’s not about forcible capture or kidnapping,’ said Kevin Bales, president of the nonprofit Free the Slaves.

    Instead, recruiters show up in villages around the world offering jobs. Even though victims say recruiters look shady, Bales said, they take a chance because their children are hungry or need medicine — and suddenly find themselves enslaved, with only rare help coming from governments.”

  • The Sophia Echo: In Bulgaria, Roma Youth at Greatest Risk for Being Trafficked

    Children aged from six to 15, from the Roma minority and orphans are at greatest risk of being dragged into trafficking for sexual exploitation, according to Antoaneta Vassileva of Bulgaria’s national commission for combating trafficking in human beings.

    …Bulgaria was a transit country for trafficking of people to Germany, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland, she said. Children trafficked for sex also were used for begging and pick-pocketing.

Can you help end the conditions that cause modern slavery?

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