Abolishing child slavery in the cocoa industry cannot be left to the hands of the governments in West Africa. The power to abolish the use of child slavery lies within the companies that purchase cacao from farms that enslave children.

You can give chocolate companies the initiative to change. Send your thoughts to the companies at the bottom of the page so chocolate manufacturers know that consumers care.

Tips for your approach:

• Keep a calm, intellectual, yet assertive tone. Yelling is not convincing.
• Use statistics and cited facts.
• Many companies state that they are actively working to eradicate slavery because of the Harkin-Engle Protocol of 2001. Ask for proof of change.
• Do not make it too long (about one printed page maximum), and get to your point.
• Tell them how you personally are acting on this and how that affects their company. For example, are you only buying Fair Trade chocolate now?

Pressure the companies that use slavery to change — here are some ways to speak up:

To M&M/Mars:
Paul Michaels, President, M&M/Mars
6885 Elm St., McLean, VA 22101
800-627-7852
consumer.affairs@mmmars.com

To Nestlé
Joe Weller, Chairman and CEO
800 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91203
1-800-225-2270

To Hershey’s
1-800-468-1714

Look on companies' websites for up-to-date contact information.