Day 6. You have a choice.

There are 12.3 million people involved in forced and child labor. There are 122 types of products produced by this kind of labor.


What are you going to do about it?


“Forced labour’’ under international standards means all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily, and includes indentured labour. ‘‘Forced labour’’ includes work provided or obtained by force, fraud, or coercion, including: 


By threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against any person; 


by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labour or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or
by means of the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process.



“Child labour’’  under international standards means all work performed by a person below the age of 15. It also includes all work performed by a person below the age of 18 in the following practices:

All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale or trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, or forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

the use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic purposes;

the use, procuring, or offering of a child for illicit activities in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs; and

work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children. The work referred to in subparagraph (d) is determined by the laws, regulations, or competent authority of the country involved.

I came across this really cool website called ProductsOfSlavery.org, which gives you information about what countries produce products that are made with forced or child labor.

The website also provides ways you can help fight against this injustice:

•Get informed and inform others
  Share a link to this Products of Slavery visualisation using
  Twitter or Facebook

•Join Anti-Slavery’s Facebook page
  Network with people like you working to stop slavery in the world, and
  campaign updates from   Anti-Slavery International in your
  Facebook news-feeds.

•Write to retailers and ask questions
  Visit our website  for some ideas and a sample letter.

•Shop ethically
  Where possible choose fairtrade products and ask your local
  retailer to stock them.

I don't want the money God gave me to support products that were made by forced or slaved labor. It seems impossible to cut out everything that is produced by slave labor, but you can make a difference even by choosing not to buy one item that was produced unethically (or even choosing to buy it fair trade). I started not eating any chocolate other than fair-trade chocolate over 2 years ago. I do not regret that decision, and now it just seems normal. Since then, I have been trying to incorporate other ways I can combat slavery this way, like buying fair trade coffee, tea, and bananas. It's a simple step you can take to fight slavery.

Information from: http://productsofslavery.org/