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Children at Work

Episode 3: Cocoa

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Two ScotlandLatest broadcast: on BBC Two HD

Two hundred million children around the world go to work every day. This series explores their everyday lives. In Ghana, Hazel Lindsey investigates the child labourers at the bottom of the supply chain for the world's favourite treat - chocolate. She travels to a cocoa village to live with young cocoa pickers and find out what the real cost of our chocolate addiction is.

Almost 70 percent of the world's chocolate is grown in West Africa. If you buy a chocolate bar on the high street, there is a good chance it has started life in Africa. And children play a vital, if controversial role in its creation.

Patrick and his friends' day begins at 6.00 during the harvest, not to get ready for school but to help their families to harvest cocoa pods in the jungle. They are typical of pickers all over Ghana, with cuts from a machete or snake bites a daily hazard.

The cost of three bars of chocolate, less than three pounds, are the boys' wages for a day. Their families live in such extreme poverty that the children are key to survival, with school often coming second. Hazel explores whether it is possible for the children to escape poverty, or is their destiny as future cocoa farmers already decided? Show less

Contributors

Presenter:
Hazel Lindsey

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