Here you will find a prewritten letter that you may submit to your local paper, using our online submission tool, or you may modify the letter or write your own. It's easy to spread the word!
The "Letters" section of your local newspaper is the most widely read section of the paper! Writing letters to the editor is an effective and easy way to communicate your perspective to both the general public and journalists.
Take action and make your voice heard!
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Sample draft of letter to the editor:
This Halloween, millions of Americans will unknowingly be supporting forced child labor in Africa. Behind much chocolate Jack-O-Lanterns, ghosts and witches, are tens of thousands of African children in forced labor camps.
Over forty percent of the world's chocolate comes from Africa's Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), where the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the U.S. State Department have reported widespread instances of child slavery and labor exploitation. Despite abundant alternatives to slave labor camps, corporations like Nestle, continue to source their cocoa from the Ivory Coast. Now, five years after major chocolate companies agreed to voluntarily put an end to child labor abuses, forced child labor continues, unabated.
While the reality is scary, the solution is easy: Boycott Nestle and buy Fair Trade certified chocolates! Fair Trade is an already existing international system that pays a minimum fair price to farmers and insure that no child or forced labor was used. In fact, Fair Trade guarantees cocoa producers the income they need to send their children to school and pay their workers fair wages, while providing consumers with a trusted guarantee that no forced or abusive child labor was used in the making of their products. This Halloween give Nestle and other irresponsible corporations and boycott their products.
Sincerely, [your name]
