my care2
make a difference

community & fun

groups

get together & make a difference

 
 
anonymous CHILD LABOR April 24, 2006 12:38 AM

To all my friends:

I attended a Child Labor Conference at California State University Northridge (CSUN) this weekend. I will be the first to admit it WE are so ignorant of what goes on in our own country and world wide.

A documentary film called Stolen Childhoods was showed during yesterday's conference. It showed the poor conditions children as young as 4 yrs old are working in all over the world. Often times beaten, raped, and starved. All to get paid a minimal $5 a week. I felt so many emotions after watching the film. I was angry, I felt guilty, and I questioned what I could do to help stop this. A few of you might know me as the person that wants to cure everything and help everyone. I realize that I can't cure and solve everything but there are things I believe we can do to become educated and advocate to stop child labor.

I hate to ruin it for all of you that spend 4 bucks for a cup of coffee at Starbucks but perhaps seeing the film I saw yesterday will cause you to boycott Starbucks coffee. Children are picking beans in the fields for 12 hours a day, their skin peeling off from all the pesticides that airplanes drop over their skinny bodies as they pick and pick.... I get emotional thinking of those images. All for what? So that you can pay the $4 to rich CEO's and franchise owners of Starbucks?The rate at which they sell coffee at Starbucks and other coffee shops is 4,000 PERCENT more than what the value of the bean is when picked by children who get paid a MISERABLE 10 cents per bucket of beans. That is bullshit and I urge you to only buy coffee that is stamped FAIR TRADE.
Learn more about this by visiting the website www.stolenchildhoods.org. The site has a list of companies and stores that are considered FAIR TRADE- meaning, the companies pay those children and families a fair amount for the work they are doing in other countries.

Those of you who smoke, I also would encourage to think about quitting not only because of health reasons, but because children in Nayarit, Mexico are also working long hours in the field with out housing or education to only make Phillip Morris a wealthier company. I'm outraged to think we are purchasing "goods" from these companies. I urge you all to think about the "goods" you are buying and at what COST of others. When you see images of five year olds picking food from dumpsters to eat after working long hours for minimal pay, I believe all of you would be as outraged as I am.

You don't have to think too far out of your own cities and states. Did you know that the U.S. does not have employment policies and laws put in place for agricultural fields? Sure, we had to wait to be 16 to get a work permit to only work a max of 4 hours a night...Meanwhile, children as young as 8 are working in the hot sunny fields in Bakersfield, San Diego, Sonoma, Long Beach, etc. missing school, working under direct sunlight, with out masks, exposed to pestisides and cancer causing chemicals that often lead to severe illnesses and death!!! Many think these children and youth are immigrants but 80% of those children that work in fields picking FRUITS AND VEGETABLES YOU EAT, are MIGRANT workers; US born and whose parents often times do not have the means or the education to provide them with the schooling or the lifestyle they deserve. Yes, this is in the US and in the fields you drive by on the freeways.

I purchased the film Stolen Childhoods and welcome the opportunity to lend it out to any and all of you. Please visit the link I posted above and educate yourselves. We spend so much time and money on things that we selfishly take for granted. Please read more on this issue and boycott purchasing from Starbucks and Phillip Morris.

As the director of the film said; "It's not that the money is not there to help stop or eliminate child labor, it is that our political leaders spend it in other places like the war." This issue should matter to all of you and I truly believe it only takes one person to bring about change. One person to take the time to educate others to become advocates and pass the message along..Please be one of those advocates...

Thanks for reading this.

Laura Aguilar
Child and Adolescent Development Graduate @ CSUN  [report anonymous abuse]  [ accepted]
 
  New Topic              Back To Topics Read Code of Conduct

 

This group:
Hand To Hand Love First...^i^
238 Members

View All Topics
New Topic

Track Topic
Mail Preferences


Copyright © 2009 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved