What is Child Slavery?

What is child slavery? Child slavery is just like any other type of slavery but it is selling children to slavery so that the parents or guardians can have money to support them and the rest of the family. Child slavery, like any other type of slavery, is illegal and should be abolished forever. The children that have been in this situation and are dying to make material objects that we take for granted every day know nothing but slavery. But if you think that this issue is in the past, you are sadly mistaken. Children as young as 3 years old working in harsh and unbearable condition around the world.

Here is something to think really hard about:

These are the faces of the children who work hard to make clothing and buildings for the government and around the world . What we take for granted, these kids work hard to harvest or create. For example, have you ever thought about where chocolate comes from? Chocolate is harvested by children in the Ivory Coast and if the children refuse to work, their feet are cut with razor blades and they are whipped within an inch of their lives. The huge shocker about this is that companies like Hershey and Nestle buy this chocolate! They use the products that these innocent children harvest every day to make their fortune. A simple way to help the kids in the Ivory Coast is to use chocolate that is not a brand name because probably all the chocolate from a brand name is made with child slavery.

If you are a parent and have young children at home, just think, what do you do for your children? You don't sell them to slavery but you do pay them an allowance that they earn. You may not be poor but you do share the same bond with these parents, you would do anything to survive life. Unlike you, they do not get a second job, they decided to sell their children like they are material possessions. Iqbal Masih was just a normal kid until his father sold 4 year old Iqbal to a weaver for 12 dollars. 12 dollars! Iqbal worked there for 12 hours a day until he was 10 years old. At 10 , Iqbal decided to run away and tell people around the world to help end slavery. When he returned from his trip, he was riding his bike with his friends in Pakistan and was shot. Iqbal was only 12 years old.

How can we stop this stuff from happening to innocent children around the world? In this blog, I will explain how you can help kids like Iqbal all over the world. Here is a little help: when Iqbal was in America, Craig Kielburger heard about his story and decided to help out. He created an organization that helps these kids out. Today, he has been all over the world promoting to save the children. His website is : http://www.freethechildren.org/

This is just one of the many organizations that save these innocent children from slavery. Do your part today and help a child in a foreign country get out of the situation that they are at today.