Putting my money where my mouth is

Recently I went to a “One Just World” conference, on the position of children internationally, and what we can do to support children, whether in Australia or internationally. I learnt a whole lot of interesting things:
• 115 million children are involved in the worst types of child labour.
• 79 million children have had female circumcision
• 100 children a day are reported to be abused or neglected in Australia

Pretty appalling, right? We often know that life for those in less fortunate countries is pretty terrible, but we don’t usually realise how terrible it is for so many people, and especially so many children. In the developed world we’re kind of sheltered from that, and we expect that the rest of the world has our views on keeping children safe etc. And while parents everywhere generally want what is best for their family, they face enough hardship and difficulty that what is “best” is quite frankly, unacceptable. Selling a child to prostitution so that your family can live is unacceptable. Child indentured servitude is unacceptable. Mutilating children so that they can make more money begging is unacceptable.

As many of you realise, I’m fundraising for my next trip to Uganda. I’m really excited about it, but the flights are $600 more than last time, and there will be other costs as well. While I work and have savings, I want to move to Uganda in the near future, so I’m hoping to fundraise all I can.

Last year, one of my most successful fundraisers was chocolates. I bought chocolates from the supermarket for $1 or less (mostly Cadbury and Nestle) and sold them for $2. It was low effort on my part, and raised around $200.

At this conference I found out about child slave labour on chocolate farms, and that it is ranked as one of the worst forms of child labour, along with things like child prostitution. A whole lot of children die making chocolate. And Cadbury, Nestle, Ferrero and Mars all band together to report only their combined statistics on their chocolate. This means that every company claims to be doing less wrong than their competitors, and there is no way of checking who is actually doing what, and buying only from the one or two companies who are aiming to change this.

So I’m not buying any chocolates from them. Not until they change this. It will mean that I won’t make as much money. It will mean that I need to put in a lot more efforts into raising the money. But I’m putting my money where my mouth is, and I’m going what I believe is right.

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?”
Isaiah 58:6

A note - I wrote this and then didn't post this for a while. I was a bit worried that my stance would effect my fundraising efforts - but I have raised FAR more this trip than I did with the last trip! Doing what God says is right is ALWAYS the best way to do things!