At least two million children work on farms in west africa, harvesting the cocoa that is very likely to end up in your favourite chocolate bar. Thanks to a programme developed by the food company nesley and others, he doesn't toil on his parents farm any more. Goudam recently interviewed the boy you heard named prosper and others as part of a broader set of stories he is reporting on the topic of forced labor world wide.
Child labor has been a longstanding scourge in the $100-billion cocoa industry for more than two decades. Despite efforts by U.S. Congressmen, African governments, the world’s biggest chocolate companies and various non-profit groups, it has been a tough nut to crack. In this episode, we look at program that actually seems to be having an effect. It uses a network of smartphones to identify child laborers on thousands of remote farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. It then tries to persuade farmers to stop using their children on farms and to send them to school instead. You will hear from cocoa farmers in Ghana, from Nestle, maker of KitKat, and a Swiss non-profit group called the International Cocoa Initiative, or ICI, which co-founded the program. (Photo: AP)