Laeticia (17)
My biggest wish is to go back to school. I went until I was 13. Then the money ran out. My aunt knew someone I could work for. She said I could earn money for secondary school.
She took me to a cocoa plantation in the Ivory Coast. If we didn’t work hard enough, the guards beat us. They used wooden sticks and motorbike cables.
After two years, I had to get away from that place. My aunt had been getting money from the plantation owner all that time, but she never gave me any.
I hadn’t seen the inside of a school building once.
Laeticia (17)
I hadn’t seen the inside of a school building once.
Laeticia (17)
13 Oct - 22 Nov 2017
Beurs van Berlage
Amsterdam
Beurs van Berlage
Amsterdam
Who are the children who harvest the cocoa for our chocolate in West Africa? What was their life like? What dreams about the future do they cherish? Fifteen of them tell their stories in this exhibition.
For every ticket of the exhibition or copy of the book sold, a contribution will be made to GRADE-FRB’s rehabilitation shelter for former child labourers.
For every ticket of the exhibition or copy of the book sold, a contribution will be made to GRADE-FRB’s rehabilitation shelter for former child labourers.
Bitter Chocolate Stories is a Paradox production in collaboration with: Joana Choumali (photography), Marijn Heemskerk (texts), GRADE-FRB and Tony’s Chocolonely. Design: Kummer & Herrman.