Ahead of Valentine’s Day, World Vision is raising awareness about child labour in the chocolate industry.
The Christian aid agency launched its “Good Chocolate Guide” online at GoodChocolateGuide.ca to help consumers find chocolate products that are ethically certified to be child-labour free. The guide features products from brands such as Camino, Green & Black’s and Dagoba, among others, as well information on what to look for when buying ethical chocolate.
The Good Chocolate Guide is part of World Vision’s ongoing “No Child for Sale” campaign, which aims to eradicate child slavery. According to World Vision, child slavery and trafficking is an ongoing problem in the cocoa industry, particular in West Africa.
“We decided to look at the issue of chocolate because the chocolate industry itself has made public commitments and signed agreements to solve the problem of child labour,” said Cheryl Hotchkiss, manager of World Vision’s No Child for Sale awareness campaign.
In recent years, Mars, Hersey, Nestle and Mondelez have committed to sourcing only ethical cocoa by 2020. “They are aware of the problem and they’re on their way to solving it,” said Hotchkiss. “One of the things World Vision can do is ensure Canadians are keeping the pressure on and letting them know that we want chocolate to be ethical and child-labour free by 2020.”
The Petition
World Vision’s online chocolate guide includes a petition urging Laura Secord, Ganong Bros. and World’s Finest Chocolate Co.—which haven’t gone public with any ethical sourcing plans—to make the same commitment.
“We’ve been in communication with Laura Secord and Ganong for over a year,” said Hotchkiss. “We’ve been trying to secure information from them and they haven’t responded to us.”
World Vision is aiming to generate consumer awareness about the guide mainly through earned media. “We’re using our supporters and our media contacts to get this message out there,” said Hotchkiss. “PR is a critical partner in our advocacy campaigns. Typically advocacy campaigns don’t have a huge budget to buy ad space, so we rely very heavily on earned media.”
