Although chocolate is originally from Latin and South America, Ivory Coast in West Africa makes up a huge percentage of the current worldwide cocoa production. With over 1,3 million tons of cocoa beans harvested per year, the Ivory Coast region produces almost three times more than the second-highest cocoa-producing country, Indonesia. Every third cocoa bean worldwide is grown in Ivory Coast. The economy of this region therefore is heavily dependent upon the developments of the global cocoa trade. This became especially evident during the civil war in 1999 that broke out after a slump in the cocoa market and which caused great political instability.
Because of the competitive landscape many small cocoa farms are not able to handle decreases in cocoa prices. Thus, in order to remain in business, a lot of farms make use of child labour. More than 15 000 children are currently working in the country’s plantations. Most of these children are not being paid, don’t have access to schools, and don’t live according to basic human rights.
DIV-Kinder (stands for German-Ivory Association) is a Christian organisation that helps and supports homeless and orphaned children in Ivory Coast. Their primary interest is to provide the children with shelter and supervision. The organisation’s employees work on site and make sure that donation and supplies are transferred directly to the children in need.
In addition to applying highest ethical standards to the sourcing of our cocoa beans (we only use fair trade chocolate), we also try to provide further help for the children of Ivory Coast with our fund-raising campaign. 1% of the price of every chocolate bar purchased goes directly to DIV-Kinder. Besides that you have the possibility of donating an additional amount for the children in need at checkout. Because of this commitment, we are officially listed as a company that is active in the fight against child labour. Our previous fundraising projects have been very successful. In the section current projects and on our blog we will keep you updated on all our current and future projects.
For more information about DIV-Kinder, take a look at their website:www.div-kinder.de
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