As the day dawns on love, millions of couples are exchanging gifts which symbolize their love and affection for each other.  While the commercialization of this day of love has left many emptying their pockets, while others  are left entangled in the brutal world of modern slavery.

Much of our chocolaty symbol of love comes from the Ivory Coast, which according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) produces 43% of the worlds cocoa. According to the ILO, over 132 million children, aged 5-14 years old, work in agriculture around the world, they are just a segment of an the estimated 246 million child laborers around the globe. These children are placed in hazardous working conditions in order to ensure that we have our sweet treats, it is truly a bittersweet story.

While it is true that being a conscious consumer sometimes requires more effort, and can often be near impossible in some cases, other cases like purchasing Fair-Trade certified products like coffee and chocolate are much more simple, and a consumers impact is substantial. As mentioned in my Valentines Day post last year on Fair Trade and chocolate for Valentines Day, “The estimated cost to end human trafficking globally is $14 billion. In 2008, Americans alone spent $17 billion on Valentine’s Day - an average of $120 per consumer (Global Fast).” Many of these purchases include chocolate candies for which children have been enslaved for the purpose of picking the cocoa pods to be made into that chocolate that we so love.

While the effort to have a slave free valentines day is one to warm hearts the world over, it is a long battle that can begin with you.  UNICEF estimates that some 200,000 children are victims of trafficking each year in West and Central Africa alone, for the purpose of working in the supply chain for products such as; cocoa and coffee. Global March Against Child Labor estimates that one in every eight children from 5 to 17 years old, some 179 million, work in the worst forms of child labor.

So spend your day with those you love and ensure that your gifts are not tainted

Additional Resources and Information:

This year make a real difference from the heart and “Fall in Love with Fair Trade” and sign the Fair Trade Valentines Day Pledge, were you can also learn not only were to buy your swearheart, or yourself, chocolate, but Fair Trade wines and flowers as well.  Please also take a moment to listen to stories from the children who work in the cocoa fields from the International Cocoa Initiative, here.

Please also see previous posts on Child Trafficking, Child Labor and fair trade such as; Fair Trade Trick-or-Treating and don’t forget to check out the following resource pages:

Human Rights in Crisis

A selection of Pulitzer Center-sponsored works

When: February 1, 2010

Time:  6-8 PM

Where:  Hart Auditorium-Georgetown University Law Center

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW

Reception to follow

Screening and Q&A, with journalists

Welcome by Ann Peters (GULC, 94), Pulitzer Center

Featuring:

•    “Afghanistan Disabled,”  Don Duncan and Jessica Wanke cover the cultural impact of widespread disability in Afghanistan.

•    “Haiti’s Restaveks,”  Carmen Russell and Dane Liu’s report on the child slaves who comprise 10% of Haiti’s youth population.

•    “Jerusalem: War in My Land” by Arturo Perez, Jr., winner of the Project Report contest, a partnership between the Pulitzer Center and YouTube.

•    A selection of videos from William Wheeler and Anna-Katarina Gravgaard explores local efforts to alleviate South Asia’s water crisis.

•    “Violence and Venom,” Micah Fink, Gabrielle Weiss and Lisa Biagiotti investigate the impact of homophobia and stigma on HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

•    “Troubles in the Congo,” Kira Kay and Jason Maloney’s report on ongoing instability in the Congo’s Kivu province. Sponsored and produced by the Bureau for International Reporting.

For more information contact:  cmr86 at law.georgetown.edu

or visit: www.pulitzercenter.org

Today was National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day (NGHTAD) and the buzz against human trafficking was all about. E-mails and 24 hour campaigns were bustling around the Internet, while Facebook was exploding with chatter on what one could do on the day to promote the day.  People across the country were sharing resources and information on how to become more aware, and what one could do to be involved in the global fight to see an end to the enslavement of some 27 million men, women and children who are held by the chains of modern slavery.

However what I want to stress most about NGHTAD, is that this is not a day to be aware, but to get aware, stay aware and act! I hope that people took today, and this national awareness month to learn some of the facts, look into resources, but most of all take tomorrow and thereafter to use them. Sure having a nationally recognized awareness day is great, but it is useless if it just sits there on the books and the only ones shouting from the rooftops about human trafficking/modern slavery, are those who are already standing on the front lines. I can write, type, talk and shout till my fingers go numb and my lungs go dry, but it’s all useless if no one is on the other side listening and learning.

True, an awareness day and awareness month, is great but for those of us in the field every day, every month, every year, is a National and Global Human Trafficking Awareness day. Did I talk more about trafficking today than any other day, yes and no! Sure, I spoke to a HS in the morning, various citizens in the afternoon as I used the day as an opener to talk to people I came across at every corner; the metro, cafe, CVS, etc. and I posted flyers everywhere I could, blogged, twittered, and facebooked away. In the evening my awareness raising continued as I was asked on a radio show to speak about the day and what people could do, as I rushed doing half my interview driving to attended an anti-trafficking community group meeting to learn and share with other organizations and interested citizens.
Therefore while it seems like I was non-stop, and I was publicly so to speak, as were so many others in the field, but the reality is that most of us are non-stop every day. I am famed for my 4am bedtimes, and all too often have had a colleague at another organization say, “You should have called me I was up”. Thus weather you hear the voices of activist on the front line or not, they are there and they are strong.  Nonetheless the harsh reality is there are far fewer of us than there are victims and survivors to assist. It is for this reason that it is so vital that the fight to combat modern slavery is not that of a day, nor that of a month, but a year long global fight by each and every local and global citizen, that will not end until each victim is rescued and every survivor is in a sustainable and thriving life. It is a long hard road, but it is a fight we can win if we unite to do so.  We all have a role to play…the end to modern slavery is a giant puzzle, and each one of us holds a piece to that puzzle…the puzzle of freedom!

What can you do?

• Learn more; watch films, read books and websites about Human Trafficking.
• Tell others about Human Trafficking…your voice is powerful…write, blog, talk!
• Start or join a student or community organization to raise awareness and learn more.
• Volunteer or organize a fundraiser with a local organization that works on Human Trafficking or a related cause.
• Post awareness flyers/posters in your office/school/gym.
• Buy Fair Trade and Slave Free products as often as you can.
• Don’t remain silent! Report it! Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline if you suspect any potential cases of human trafficking. (Put the number in your cell phone NOW!): 1-888-3737-888

It takes all of us to build the bridge to freedom!

Today marks National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day (NGHTAD), as a resolution passed by the US Senate on June 22, 2007 has forever marked January 11th as a day of awareness and vigilance for the countless victims of Human Trafficking across the globe.

Take action today, be it via the internet or in your own city/town/village across the world to remember all those around the globe who have been victimized by modern slavery and who are unable to govern their own lives.

• There are some 27 million people held in slavery today across the globe. (bigger and bolder, could be placed separately, possibly centered?)
• According to 2009 State Department Trafficking in Persons Report over 80% of those trans-nationally trafficked are women and children.
• The US State department estimates that some 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year and about 80 percent of them are female and at least 50% are children.

• In 1850 a slave in the Southern United States cost the equivalent of $40,000 today. According to Free the Slaves, a slave today costs an average of $90.

If you suspect a situation or a potential victim, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 1-888-3737-888 now!  We highly recommend you take a moment to place this number in your mobile phones now.

*The flyer was provided via the Bridge to Freedom Foundation, for downloadable copies please see www.BridgetoFreedomFoundation.org

Traffickers target Kenyan economic refugees
Human traffickers are taking advantage of Kenyans seeking to escape extreme poverty, droughts and rampant unemployment. Anti-trafficking advocates say Kenya lacks existing laws and manpower to combat the problem.

Nepal frees hundreds of former child soldiers
Hundreds of former child soldiers bid their comrades farewell today at a camp in southern Nepal where they have lived since communist rebels joined a peace process. They are the first of nearly 3,000 former child soldiers to be freed from seven camps where they have been confined since a peace agreement in 2006.

107 slave laborers freed in Mexico City
Mexican authorities have freed 107 indigenous people who officials say were being held as slave laborers in a Mexico City factory disguised as a drug rehabilitation center. Twenty-three suspects were arrested…The victims ranged from 14 to 70 years old, and some were tortured…Some victims also suffered sexual abuse..

15 Kyrgyz child slave laborers freed from factory near Moscow
Police have released 15 Kyrgyz minors who had been used as slave laborers at a factory in Noginsk near Moscow, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. “An illegal clothes factory has been discovered in the compound of an industrial facility in Noginsk, where citizens of Kyrgyzstan under the age of 18 were used as workers,” police said in a statement. “The children had their documents taken away and lived in impoverished conditions under day-and-night guard,” police said. “They were forced to work at night.” The children were not paid, and were given no free time. “The children were…punished for disobeying orders or refusing to work,” the statement said.

Walmart Won’t Buy Cosan Sugar Amid Slavery Blacklist
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, suspended a supply contract with Cosan SA Industria & Comercio after the Brazilian sugar maker was added to a government slavery “blacklist.” Cosan said it won an injunction ordering it be removed from the list. Walmart is the first retailer to come out with sanctions against Cosan after the sugar producer was added Dec. 31 to a Brazilian Labor Ministry’s list of companies whose workers operate in slave-like conditions. Walmart’s local unit said it temporarily suspended purchases of Cosan’s Acucar Uniao and Acucar da Barra sugar brands.

Selling Sex on Facebook
Technology is changing industries all over the world faster than they can link their Facebook profiles to their Twitter accounts. Prostitution is migrating online just like everything else. So say goodbye to the era of street corner pimps smoking outside Cadillacs, and hello to the era of slick escort websites, carefully coded Craigslist ads, and online marketing of commercial sex. Call it the age of the e-brothel.

Zimbabwe continues to battle controversy over diamond mining
Abuses at Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond field continue despite agreements with internal monitors to end military control of the area, rights monitor Global Witness says. Zimbabwean authorities were forced to make a last-minute cancellation of a planned auction of 300,000 carats of rough diamonds after failing to obtain a conflict-free certification for the stones.

Separation of sexes changing in Saudi Arabia?
Top Saudi Arabian religious officials have begun to endorse a clear distinction between the innocent meddling of the sexes and sinful behavior in recent weeks. For decades, Saudi religious authorities have rigidly enforced separation of the sexes in public.

Can GPS mapping improve slum life?
Humanitarian organization OpenStreetMap has trained a team of young Kenyans to use global positioning system devices to map the Nairobi slum Kibera in the hopes of improving access to services for the area’s more than 500,000 residents. The data will be uploaded to the Internet as a free map to help residents and aid agencies better understand existing service availability and gaps.

Nepal frees hundreds of former child soldiers
Hundreds of former child soldiers bid their comrades farewell today at a camp in southern Nepal where they have lived since communist rebels joined a peace process. They are the first of nearly 3,000 former child soldiers to be freed from seven camps where they have been confined since a peace agreement in 2006.

Taiwan couple builds a “papercrete” future
A couple in Taiwan has opened a small school built from “papercrete” — a mixture of paper, water and cement — using recycled newspapers collected by would-be students. The couple plans to open a paper-based pizza restaurant.

WHO: Premature birth rates rising across the world
About 10% of the world’s 130 million annual births are premature, the World Health Organization says. The vast majority of premature births occur in developing countries, where limited availability of medical care decreases the chances of survival, but preterm birth rates are growing in rich countries as well.

Pakistan finds suicide bomber school
Pakistani military officials say they have discovered a compound used by the Taliban to brainwash young men into becoming willing suicide bombers. Parents from impoverished regions reportedly sent their children to the compound in response to promises of education and free food.

Report finds Haiti child slavery rampant
Poverty has driven more than 225,000 children into positions as unpaid household servants across Haiti, the Pan American Development Foundation says in a report. Families unable to provide for the children send them to wealthier households to work, where some face mental and physical abuse on top of long work days.

Malnutrition continues to stalk Afghan women, children
Malnutrition continues to drive high maternal and child mortality rates in Afghanistan despite billions of dollars in aid, education and infrastructure improvement since 2001. The World Food Programme and UNICEF are working to feed an estimated 100,000 children and 35,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women at clinics and through free lunches provided at schools.

Improved education, infrastructure raise Zambia’s cholera season hopes
As the rainy season in Zambia picks up, so does the threat of Cholera; around 60 cases have been recorded since mid-November, but the authorities and aid agencies hope education and improved infrastructure will help keep the waterborne disease at bay.

Study: Orphanages’ care equal to family life in poor countries
The care orphans in poor countries receive at orphanages is at least as good as care they might get when taken in by family members, says a study published in the journal PLoS One. The number of children worldwide missing one or more parents tops 143 million and continues to grow.

Egyptian academy stops publishing book after Christian protests
In what is seen by many as an unprecedented response, Al Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy has decided to stop publishing a book criticized for defaming Christianity. ‘The Scientific Report’, written by Muslim intellectual Mohamed Emara, was released alongside the institution’s monthly magazine in November. The author said the work was commissioned by the Research Academy to refute a book written by a Christian Coptic writer a few months ago that was regarded as denigrating Islam.

Nepal child soldiers to be freed
The Nepalese government and former Maoist rebels have agreed on a plan to free thousands of child soldiers from camps. United Nations programs will provide the former fighters with education and training to help rehabilitate them. The children have been living in Maoist camps since a UN-brokered end to the country’s civil war three years ago.

Its that time of year again to give back and what isn’t a better way to give than to take a chance on freedom and a fantastic rug.  The GoodWeave™ Program to End Child Labor is running it’s 8th Annual Rug Raffle, which is quickly coming to an end, so get your ticket before its too late.

The GoodWeave certification program works to end exploitative child labor in the South Asian carpet industry by inspecting weaving looms and providing rehabilitation and education for former child weavers. To date, the GoodWeave program has rescued more than 3,600 children from exploitation on carpet looms and offered them rehabilitation, education, vocational training, and other services. The GoodWeave label is your best assurance that no child labor was used in the manufacture of a carpet or rug.

Officials: In Ghana, cell phones reduce maternal mortality
In Ghana’s Amensie village, where the Millennium Villages project made mobile phones near ubiquitous in 2006, deaths related to childbirth have fallen from 20 per year to zero in 2008, according to local health officials. Local health workers attribute the improvement in part to women’s new-found emergency access to health workers through cell phones and the district hospital’s new ambulance.

Uganda readies female genital-mutilation law
A Bill outlawing female genital mutilation is ready to be presented to the House for the second reading and be passed into law, MPs have been told. Addressing a regional parliamentary workshop on the theme “Consolidating political will for child well being” at Imperial Royale Hotel yesterday, the chairperson of the committee on gender, Beatrice Lagada, blamed the practice for the high drop out rates in Universal Primary Education (UPE).

$24 billion would slash maternal-mortality rates
Doubling current funding to $24 billion for basic health services could cut maternal-mortality rates in developing countries by nearly half, a United Nations Population Fund and Guttmacher Institute report says. Widespread availability of routine delivery care and family-planning services would prevent the deaths of 400,000 women and 1.6 million babies a year, and cut unintended pregnancies by two-thirds, according to the report.

Somalia violence exacts heavy toll on civilian population
Violence has forced half a million Somalis to flee their homes this year and left half the population in need of food aid, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the country to Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Sudan.

South Africa announces universal care for HIV-positive babies
South African President Jacob Zuma has vowed to ensure those younger than 1 year old that test positive for HIV/AIDS will receive treatment. South Africa has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infections in the world, and an estimated 59,000 are born HIV-positive every year.

Deadly salmonella strain taking toll on Africa
A new drug-resistant strain of salmonella bacteria has emerged in Africa, causing death in one of four cases among children and vulnerable adults, British and African researchers reported. Individuals weakened by malaria, anemia and HIV/AIDS are particularly susceptible, researchers said.

UN launches massive Humanitarian Appeal
The United Nations launched its largest annual Humanitarian Appeal, calling for $7.1 billion in funding from rich countries to provide humanitarian assistance to 48 million people in 25 countries. Funds will be shared by 380 relief organizations working to help vulnerable communities overcome the effects of natural disasters and armed conflict.

WHO takes new position on HIV drugs for breastfeeding mothers
The World Health Organization is reversing its position on the administration of anti-retroviral therapy drugs used to treat HIV, advising they be given sooner to breastfeeding mothers in hopes of preventing transmission of the disease — a position that will call for more treatments for many more people. Though falling prices have widened the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatments, particularly within poor countries, fewer than half of those who require treatment currently receive it.

Women’s rights key to climate change — and vice versa
Noting that women must work harder to care for food and hygiene as global temperatures rise, UN Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said women must play a greater role in forging an agreement on climate change. Improving education and health care access for women — especially within developing countries — will help to control population growth and increased strain on limited resources. Experts observe that women’s participation can ensure creative solutions to problems that weigh most heavily on women within a given community.

UNFPA: Impoverished women bear brunt of climate change
The UN Population Fund has found the world’s primary agricultural workers — impoverished women — will bear the brunt of catastrophic climate change resulting from global warming. The UNFPA called for greater equality for women to relieve the disproportionate burden they are bound to experience from weather-related natural disasters, and their consequences for food, water and energy.

Food summit finds little financing for global-hunger fight A summit on world hunger at the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization headquarters ended with pledges to increase aid for agricultural development, but no concrete commitments for financing. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the summit with sobering statistics on the state of world hunger, noting 17,000 children die every day. “Small-holder farmers are the heart and soul of food security and poverty reduction. Our job is not just to feed the hungry but to empower the hungry to feed themselves,” Ban said.

Sri Lanka camps breeding anger
Ethnic Tamils and human-rights groups are growing increasingly frustrated by the extended government use of internment camps to house Tamil refugees. Six months after the government declared victory over the Tamil Tigers, around 200,000 people remain in the camps. Authorities say they are screening for any remaining rebels, but observers worry the continued detention might stoke ethnic tensions.

Tobacco poison surrounds child workers
In Malawi, villagers, including children, exposed to harmful waste from tobacco processors. The children pick through mountainous piles of waste tobacco and sweep it up with their bare hands into giant bags in the hope of scraping a living. From behind a veil of dust, they stare back at us with bloodshot eyes.
- British American Tobacco announces inquiry; Alliance One says it will build wall to keep children away from waste

More than 2,000 Zimbabweans flee, fearing attacks
Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.

AFRICA: “The fewer the children the better the care”
Africa will fail to achieve most UN Millennium Development Goals unless countries adopt effective family planning programmes and control rapid population growth, experts warn.
“Africa has not done well in areas of family planning,” Khama Rogo, World Bank senior adviser, said. “It is not that we cannot do well; we have not committed ourselves… family planning and population growth have a cross-cutting impact.”

AFGHANISTAN: Schools to reopen for exams after H1N1 shutdown
The government has decided to reopen all schools from 23 November to 12 December to allow 7.5 million schoolchildren across Afghanistan to take exams. On 1 November Afghanistan’s National Disasters Management Commission declared an H1N1 health emergency and ordered a shutdown of all schools and universities for three weeks. Up to nine million students and teachers were affected by the decision which was also criticized by some observers as “politically motivated”.

YEMEN: Malnourished children arriving at al-Mazraq IDP camp
Aid workers at al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northernYemen, say more and more children are arriving at the camp in a state of moderate or severe malnourishment. Khalid Shaibani from the UNICEF-run therapeutic feeding centre (TFC) at the camp told IRIN the number of malnourished children was increasing by the day as new IDP families arrived.

VIETNAM: Ethnic minorities lose out on maternal healthcare
The birth rate in rapidly developing Vietnam has dropped in recent years while maternal health and antenatal standards have risen - albeit only for the dominant ethnic groups. Ethnic minorities mostly still give birth at home, without a healthcare worker or midwife, specialists say.