Easter & Chocolate (like peas & carrots)- Choose Good Chocolate!

Children love Easter eggs, but what of the children forced to make them?
27 March 2007-- Wellington, NZ

Will you support The Salvation Army's anti human trafficking campaign by buying Easter eggs that have not been made by children forced to harvest the cocoa beans?
We are free to choose—the children enslaved on some cocoa plantations are not!
So far only one chocolate manufacturer here in New Zealand states publicly that their Easter eggs come from fair trade sources. Scarborough Fair is the first company to produce fair trade Easter eggs in Australasia.

These Easter eggs are found in the following supermarkets:
Woolworths
Countdown
Foodtown
Supervalue
Freshchoice

The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit supports the Chocolate Campaign organised by Stop the Traffik organisation UK... will you!

'Be the change you want to see in the world' ...Mahatma Gandhi

Jesus said, 'what you did to the least of these my brothers/sisters, you did to me."

Want more information?
Contact...
Mrs Chris FrazerSocial Justice AdvocateThe Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unitph. 04-8026269 ext. 8314email Chris

One to remember...

On April 4th 1968, a great man, was assasinated for his call for equality, for justice, for basic civil rights. Martin Luther King Junior, aided by others led the crusade for social justice in America.

Everyone deserves the basics to life (food, shelter, education, etc), to have choices and the right to life discrimination free. King's work included giving Black Americans equal voting rights, and changing the hearts and minds of Americans. King was convicted by what he saw in his nation. He saw people in slavery, lacking in the basics such as education, hate crimes and the inablilty to escape their circumstances. King brought changes through political means, America was not living up to its consitiution- he made them accountable.

BUT King went beyond this call for justice, he also went as far to extend mercy- transformation- not only should the law or the country abide to jsut practices but also the nation should be united with love for one another. He called for change of law, but also change of hearts, minds and attitudes. America has come along way, perhaps not to the place Kings speaks about in his speech 'I have a dream', but its getting there. Kings work was revolutioary, may his work continue to inspire America, its people, its law makers. And may it inspire us!

"And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Find kings speech at: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

More Info on Human Trafficking

There is a really informative and interesting article on a youth site in the UK.
Check it out here.

Word.

Nelson Mandela says:

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Freedom Alright!

Wow checking out the Stop Trafficking Website, its like a bag of licorice All sorts! Speaking of sweet stuff, chocolate... love it, love it, love it!

But another quick fact, 12,000 children have been trafficked into cocoa farms in Cote D'Ivoire so When we buy chocolate we are being forced to be oppressors as we have no guarantee that the chocolate we eat is 'traffik free'!

Makes ya think a bit aye?

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign/

FREEEEDOM!!!

So, hopefully you have read the last post about the slavery of today, mostly termed human traffiking.... the general aim of the, er, game, for campaigners is.... (cryptic!) Freedom.
As part of the campaign, on March 25th there will be a global celebration called Freedom Day.
It is the 100 year anniversary of the total abolition of slavery (so far as the law goes, you know) so it seems like a perfect day to honour the work of Wilberforce and his crew that bought those law changes about.
It is also a fabulous opportunity to create awareness of the issue of human traffiking (see below) amongst your workmates, school etc.
If you have any ideas about ways to do this, how about blogging them on here, eh?!
There is lots of info and resources and idea here.

Stop the Traffik

Picture a dank and cold room, the concrete walls are lined with the huddled figures of young girls. The smell of fear hangs in the air and an occasional glimpse of a pair of wide eyes tell a story too horrific to imagine. Their journey involves a kidnap, long periods of time in transit, no hope of ever being paid and certainly no idea of ever being free of their owner. It could be a scene from the middle of the last millenia, or even 150 years ago. The scary truth is that this is the experience of at least 400,000 women each year. Slavery and human trafik is happening as I type.

• 20 million people are held in bonded labour around the world
• 80 million children are engaged in work injurious to their health and development
• profits from the trafficking of people are US $7 billion a year
• of the 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 per cent are women and girls, and up to 50 per cent are minors.

It is hard to feel a part of the loop, being a little island in the pacific. But we must always remember that as citizens of the globe we form a vital link in every unjust situation wherever it's location. Stop the traffik has heaps more information on it's website about the ways you can campaign against the evils of human traffiking.