365 cartoons will be conveyed, one per day, for the campaign idealized by NGO Cartoons for change, managed by Fernando Morales-de la Cruz.
Some of the most prominent cartoonists and graphic artists in the world are joining the cause of combating the exploitation of child labor, especially in coffee, cocoa and tea crops in the world. One of the first to join the team was South African cartoonist Bethuel Mangena, who works at the African News Agency.
Guatemalan Fernando Morales-de la Cruz, journalist, activist and founder of the NGO Cartoons for Change is inviting artists via Twitter and email to join his battle against child labor. “We made an open invitation to all the cartoonists and illustrators in the world to join our cause”, says De la Cruz, who is also in charge of the NGO Café for Change and knows the theme of child labor exploitation, especially in the chains of coffee, chocolate and tea.
“We have already received more than 100 works by artists from Russia, Nigeria, Turkey, Brazil, among others and, soon, we will announce an official date for the onset of the movement; we will be publishing 365 cartoons, one per day”, he reports.
This is an initiative to draw people’s attention to such a serious and ignored issue. It is estimated that around 152 million children worldwide work, according to the World Labor Organization. Out of these, 70% work in agriculture, 17% in the service sector and 12% in the primary sector, especially in mining.
“It is absolutely unacceptable, cruel and illegal that 70 years after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 30 years after the adoption of the Convention on Children’s Rights, the coffee, tea and chocolate consumed in the United Nations building and in other centers of power and influence around the world, where they are supposed to support sustainable development initiatives, are the result of child labor”, explains Fernando.
“Child labor is also a form of racism, which perpetuates the poverty of the vulnerable and further enriches the large productive chains”, concludes Fernando Morales-de la Cruz.
The cartoons will be published in the press, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
