Walk Against Child Slavery
10 Dec 2008
Media release
The idea of child slavery existing in the world today is heinous and horrifying. Christopher Pyne’s Walk Against Child Slavery being held in Adelaide tomorrow aims to highlight the key issues that affect millions of children around the world that are victims of modern day slavery.
“The Walk Against Child Slavery is not a walk from ‘point a to point b’, but rather a walk between interactive stations. The aim of the stations is to educate the community on the extent of the global problem and how they can respond positively to stop the exploitation of children around the world” Christopher Pyne, the Federal Member for Sturt said.
“I am delighted that The Head of World Vision Australia, Rev Tim Costello and Channel Seven’s Jane Doyle will be attending and supporting this event.”
“The Walk has been made possible with the support of many organisations who are fighting to raise awareness about the issue of child slavery including World Vision Australia, Caritas, The Oak Tree Foundation, Oxfam, The Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand and Baptist World Aid Australia through their Catalyst Campaign.
“We also have the support of local businesses that either offer Fair Trade products, or strongly support this cause.”
“Right now there are many thousands of children forced to harvest cocoa beans on the Ivory Coast, and in Ghana. These children are slaves, who, according to reports, work 80-100 hours a week in the extremely labour intensive harvesting of cocoa beans.”
“This is not a party-political event, everyone with an interest in this area is welcome to attend,” Mr Pyne said.