I always find Easter a struggle, the cravings kick in! The higher the shops stack their shelves with delicious Easter eggs, the worse it gets. I find myself craving Cadbury’s mini eggs or really wanting to tuck into a gooey Cadbury’s Creme Egg. But I just can’t eat them!

Did you know that a child of 10 may have been trafficked to make the chocolate in your favourite Easter egg?

Over a third of the cocoa that makes the world's chocolate comes from the Cote D'Ivoire, Africa. It's highly likely that the beans that make your favourite chocolate Easter egg come from there.

Cocoa harvesting is backbreaking and hazardous work. The shocking reality is that much of this work is done by children. Thousands of boys as young as 10yrs old, from the Cote D'Ivoire and neighbouring countries, are trafficked to pick and harvest these beans. Their freedom is taken and they are forced to work long hours on the cocoa plantations without receiving any money for their work. They are beaten and work in dangerous conditions.

Estimates of child labour on cocoa farms in the Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana, from reliable organisation such as the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), UNICEF and Tulan University vary from 300,000 to 1 million between 2007-2013 [1]. We know that a portion of these children have been trafficked.

Whatever the exact figure, this is far too many - this has to stop!

This Easter we invite you to join our petition to call on Mondelēz, the world’s largest chocolate company, to make a public commitment to reduce the risk of child trafficking in their cocoa supply chains.

Other global chocolate companies such as Mars, Ferrero and Hershey have made commitments to certify their entire chocolate range by 2020. Mondelēz is lagging behind. This Easter we want to ask Mondelēz to set a public deadline for certifying their entire chocolate range. We want to see a third party certification stamp (such as Fairtrade, UTZ or Rainforest Alliance) on all of their chocolate products.

This Easter show Mondelēz that you care!

In order make this happen, we need you! Your voice matters. Join our petition now!

Thanks!

[1] http://www.confectionerynews.com/Manufacturers/Nestle-Cargill-and-ADM-face-child-slavery-case/?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter+Daily&c=iiDOG7FmqrMZh0FrkXY3X9gNOO7FlnkF