Mark Charman
Anti
Child Slavery
Marc
works for his father, Jean Kwame, on a cocoa plantation in the village
of Allanbakro. "I teach Marc to work the land. Life is very poor
for us. This is how we live. We make no money". Using dangerous
equipment like cocoa machetes, Marc often suffers deep cuts to his legs
that are left untreated. Both he and other young children learn to cope
with flies feasting on their weeping wounds as they work long hours
in the unbearable heat, cutting, sifting, and stacking beans. Marc is
trapped in this daily cycle, and he is also banned from seeing his mother.
"I used to go to school, but my father said there is no boy to
work in the field, so then he made me work. My mother is a long way
from here. I haven't seen her for ten years since I was aged two."
Alemayehu - a Domestic Cotton Weaver in Ethiopia
Alemayehu is a young child slave who weaves cotton in a remote area on the outskirts of the Ethiopian Capital. He does not know when his birthday is and he was taken away from his family to work. He spends 12 hours a day weaving cotton and when he makes mistakes he is hit with belts and sticks. Alemahu was tricked into child slavery and taken away from his birth-home by the man he now knows as both 'Boss' and 'Dad'.