Annandale Middle School Students Draw Attention to Child Labor in Cocoa Industry

Two classes of 8th grade English honors students at Annandale’s Poe Middle School are investigating the issue of child labor in the cocoa industry and are drawing attention to the problem with brochures, letters, and a White House petition with a goal of 100,000 signatures by Friday, Nov. 28, according to a news release from FCPS. Here’s more about their efforts, from the release:

Poe Middle School is a Fairfax County public school. The students were challenged by teacher Marty Martin to research current issues as part of a semester-long service learning project. As a group, they then voted on the issue they felt was most interesting, shocking, and worthy of study.

Their overwhelming selection was child labor in the cocoa industry, which affects millions of children in West African countries—particularly Ghana and the Ivory Coast—where 70 percent of the world’s chocolate is produced, much of which is consumed in the U.S. During their research—which included studying news articles, policy documents, news clips, and a web quest—the students learned that children as young as 5 years old have been growing and harvesting cocoa beans, doing hazardous jobs that could get them injured or killed, and are forced to walk for miles to get to the cocoa farms while making very low wages.

They discovered that these children are often taken from their parents and denied an education. Further research by the students revealed that UNICEF estimates around 1.8 million children work on cocoa farms in West Africa. Their research also revealed that the U.S. has protocols and frameworks to halt the practice of child labor in the cocoa sector, both directly and indirectly, that are reaching only a limited number of people.

The Harkin–Engel protocol—a public-private agreement with a goal of aligning labor practices in Ghana and the Ivory Coast with International Labor Association standards—dedicates funds toward monitoring child labor practices and educating farmers in 290 African communities, estimated to reach approximately 650,000 people, without adequate funding and standardization, noted the students.

They learned that Tulane University, tasked with monitoring the protocol’s outreach, released a study that revealed that less than 5 percent of the children and their caregivers were exposed to the Harkin-Engel protocol and that the protocol not only missed its 2005 deadline, but by 2010, industry standards had still not been fully developed or enforced.

So the 45 eighth graders started a letter-writing campaign to bring the issue to the attention of other teachers at Poe, community leaders, and celebrities. They developed a QR code that takes people immediately to the petition site which is live through Friday, Nov. 28.

Martin says the students are deeply involved in the issue and passionate about their work, and that they have discovered how broad and complex an issue it is after completing their research. She encourages individuals to support the petition, saying, “Help me show our students you don’t have to be big to make a big difference.”

PHOTO: Poe Middle School in Annandale; photo by FCPS