Teaming up with Hershey to eradicate child labor
Teaming up with Hershey to eradicate child labor
Children will be provided with school kits.
On May 28, 2018, Barry Callebaut and The Hershey Company (“Hershey”) committed to address community needs and implement child labor monitoring and remediation with farmers across 32 communities in Côte d’Ivoire.
“The Hershey Company does not tolerate, and is committed to preventing, child labor across the entire supply chain. Child labor is a symptom of poverty and we have therefore chosen under our new Cocoa For Good strategy to address it in a holistic manner. Strong communities play a vital role to drive the ownership in prevention and remediation efforts against child labor and we believe that todays’ children and youth become tomorrow’s leaders when they’re equipped with the skills and resources to build successful futures – in cocoa-growing communities and beyond.” stated Jeff King Sr.Director CSR, Sustainability and Social Innovation.
The end goal is to empower cocoa farmer communities to take the fight against child labor into their own hands. To this purpose, Barry Callebaut and Hershey are providing training and resources to build the capacity of community child protection committees which will focus on child protection, education and women’s empowerment. Children and families will be provided with assistance in the form of school kits, birth certificates, alternative groups to provide work, educational activities, vocational training for family members, and women’s income generation for mothers.
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), a multi-stakeholder platform of industry and NGOs, will take a leading role in the delivery of training programs on child labor monitoring and data analysis, and will drive remediation activities.
“In our efforts to safeguard child rights and promote child protection in cocoa-growing communities, we welcome the opportunity to continue to expand our collaboration with industry partners and implement robust strategies to address child labour. Within this scaled-up partnership, we will provide technical support, quality assurance and benchmarking while delivering training programs and the follow-up of any child labor cases found."
Katchilè, a geotraceability App developed by Barry Callebaut, allows us to better assess our farmers’ needs and track our impact related to sustainability activities. Katchilè, which will be one of the tools used to capture data, identifies households at risk as well as the presence of children working in the cocoa communities we source from.
“We are committed to a sustainable cocoa sector - which cannot exist if child labor persists,” stated Nicko Debenham, Head of Sustainability and MD Biolands and Chairman of Cocoa Horizons “While we may not have all of the answers today, we are engaging with experts and governments to ensure we find the solutions and implement the activities to make them a reality.”
Child Monitoring using Katchilè
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Barry Callebaut Story for World Day Against Child Labor 2018
