According to CNN, traffickers are taking advantage of the current instability in Haiti to take children and organs out of the country. Many children have been orphaned and the massive displacement of people, in makeshift dwellings, make them extremely vulnerable:

Haiti is trying to locate displaced children and register them so they can either be reunited with other family members or put up for adoption, Bellerive said.
But, he said, illegal child trafficking is “one of the biggest problems that we have.”
Many groups appear to be legitimate, “but a lot of organizations — they come and they say there were children on the streets. They’re going to bring them to the [United] States,” he said.

(source: CNN.com and @STOPTHETRAFFIK, photo: United Nations)

It’s a disturbing thought that a market established on the dreams and imaginations of children could be profiting from the widespread use of sweatshops and unsafe working environments. According to Tim Hunt, of Ethical Consumer Magazine, this is today’s reality and ethically conscientious manufacturers are in the minority:

Up to 80% of the world’s toys are made in China, where human rights are often overlooked. The report “Nightmare on Sesame Street” by the US-based National Labour Committee last year highlighted many of these problems.

It found that in the Kai Da factory in Shenzhen city, which supplies Hasbro, a hundred 16-year-old high-school children and several younger children were working. Conditions in the factory were said to be dangerous, with potentially toxic solvents and paints routinely handled by workers with only rudimentary protective gear. Shifts were allegedly routinely over 12 hours long, seven days a week, with no days off for many months, plus mandatory 19- and 23-hour shifts at busy times such as the pre-Christmas rush.

(Source: The Guardian Online, Image: Katherine)

Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury, has been directing attention recently to environmental issues and our responsibility to reduce our ‘footprint.’ One of his suggestions (in a recent interview with The Times) could take a serious toll on the livelihood of many African farmers:

He said that the carbon footprint of peas from Kenya and other airfreighted food was too high and families should not assume that all types of food would be available through the year.

As James MacGregor points out in The Guardian today:

Stopping this trade would make hardly any impact on climate change but would harm over one million people in sub-Saharan Africa who depend on it for their livelihoods, and to pay for healthcare and the education of their children, girls in particular.

He adds that:

Air-freighted fruit and vegetables contribute less than one-tenth of one percent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This is one of the great tensions between international development and environmental sustainability.

It’s no recent news, but the EU, China and the USA provide their farmers with subsidies which allow them to compete in a world market. These subsidies mean that the farmers can charge far less for their produce than they are actually worth. Any surpluses are then dumped on developing markets at a much lower price than local farmers can afford.

Are we to continue with these structural injustices and at the same time cut back on consumer spending on African produce?

(Source: The Guardian Online, The Times. Image: Steve Punter)

The Guardian reports on the current state of life in Southern Sudan. While the SPLA are said to be disarming, peace is threatened from all sides by poverty, disease, interference from neighbouring territories, and the arrival of Uganda’s LRA. People are displaced and children are stolen and traded as commodities:

“We were coming home from school when some men came out of the bushes in torn clothes. They were calling and offering us soda. We were very scared so we ran,” said Susan Achan, 12.
Last month two of her friends were not so lucky. “We were picking mangoes,” said Sebit Quintino, 13. “We saw the men, they were Murle tribe, and we shouted to each other and ran, but three were playing in the water and didn’t hear. One of the boys turned up days later after managing to escape; the other two have never been seen again.”
The boys are traded for cattle and made to work, and the girls are also sold off for a dowry of cows.

(Source: The Guardian Online. Image: Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters)

This is the first in a series of micro enterprise profiles on makethingsfair.com. We want to make people aware not only of the progress of the consumer giants, but also of the people who are engaging with specific communities and harnessing their energies in creative and transforming ways.

It might seem hard to believe, but there is some good news coming out of Iraq. Buy Shoes. Save Lives. have joined forces with families in the North to make their traditional, hand crafted shoes available to a wider audience. Founder, Jeremy Courtney was interviewed in Relevant Magazine:

The full name is klashi kurdi. They’re made locally [in Northern Iraq] by Kurds. By one shoemaker’s account, they’ve been around since 600 B.C. Whether you believe that or not, they’re definitely legendary in this part of the world. It takes at least 35 hours to make one pair…we can introduce you by name to the people who make our shoes. I love the idea of seeing families apprenticed in this trade. It’s beautiful.

The company is ‘fair trade’ in its simplest form: workers get a fair and much needed income, while extra profits are invested in funding heart surgery for Iraqi children:

Klash and Kids Klash are not made in anonymous factories or sweat shops. We do not have relationships with grizzly foremen to the exclusion of the actual labor force. We meet with the shoemakers themselves, know their names, know their families, eat lunch with them and treat them with as much respect as we desire for ourselves.

To order your pair, click here.

(source: The Preemptive Love Coalition, Relevant Magazine)

British supermarket Sainsbury’s will begin stocking Fair Trade Coffee produced in the Congo, according to a recent article on The Guardian website. Coffee smuggling between the DRC and Rwanda is responsible for a huge number of deaths each year:

Most coffee from this part of DRC is smuggled across the lake to Rwanda at night. Official figures report that a thousand people drown each year in the process.

It is hoped that contracts like this will offer farmers from conflict zones a safer alternative.

(source: The Guardian, photo: hdptcar)

The South African Government has recently published a bill that will form the foundations of future legislation on Human Trafficking. Until now there has been no legislation specifically dealing with trafficking:

“human traffickers could only be charged with kidnapping, or, when relevant, assault and murder. Women and children are most vulnerable, most often being used in prostitution rackets… The bill provides for the prosecution of traffickers and appropriate sentences, the prevention of trafficking and the protection and assistance of victims. Courts will be given the power to order traffickers to pay compensation to their victims.”

The bill will be open for public comment until the 15th June. Click here (pdf) to download the bill and have your say…

(source: Independent Online, photo: Zoriah.net)

A select committee report released today insists that the UK Government, Judges and Police begin to take Trafficking in Persons more seriously:

“[law] enforcement is patchy, prosecution rates are low and there is little protection for victims. What we have is in effect a resurgence of a type of slave trade, yet we have no good information on the scale of the problem”

(via The Guardian, photo: Maurice)

An example of how luxury tourism and “fair trade” initiatives can work hand in hand:

Amy and Neal Carter-James built their luxury eco-resort, Guludo Beach Lodge, here on a white sand beach on the edge of the Quirimbas National Park, not far from the impoverished village of Guludo. Says Amy, “We wanted to find a place where fair-trade tourism could alleviate poverty and provide jobs.”

(via Conde Nast)

She wakes at 4am and works until 7pm making rope at the side of the road in the fierce south Indian sun. She has no illusions about her situation. Her parents owe 35,000 rupees (£480), a debt that stretches back to before Vinothini was born and for which she has been offered as collateral.

He has been beaten badly by his boss four or five times in the past two years. He was traded for a loan of 5,000 rupees — about £70. “My father used the money to help build a house and to buy a TV,” he said.

(via The Times and @stopthetraffik, photo: Dhilung Kirat)