Kids in Ghana work for Hershey Co.
By Hannah Racki
Help The Children
Do you enjoy Hershey's chocolate? Well then you must not know the dark secret behind the production of their chocolate. Through my research I have figured out that they use child labor to get the cocoa that they need to make their chocolate. In 1997 and 1998, for example, 370 tons of cocoa was used to make chocolate in the Hershey factories. That's at least 72% of the beans that they get from Africa. In order to get this cocoa from the farms in Africa, workers are needed to get the cocoa from the farms. Sometimes families are so desperate for money that they sell their own family members to the cocoa farms. Sometimes, they were paid up front or they were paid a certin amount of money after the child does a certin amount of work. Also, children are kidnapped and forced to work on the cocoa farms. Some children come from small villiges like Burkina Faso and Mali. Many children begin working on the farms as young as 7 years old. A few of these children only stay for a few months others stay into adulthood, just like this boy. He said:
"some bags were taller than me. It took two people to lift the bag over my head. When you did not hurry you were beaten" -Aly Diabate- former cocoa slave