Story from Suisse TV (German Language only)
http://www.unfairtobacco.org/
Swiss television produced new documentary
Not only those who smoked tobacco, harm his health. Even tobacco farmers become ill through contact with the nicotine leaves. Toil on the plantations even children. Only then can they deliver the required quantity of tobacco multinationals. The consumer magazine "cash check" in the SF1 shows how these families suffer
English Language References:
CorpWatch.:.Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi
by Pilirani Semu-Banda, Special to CorpWatch
February 25th, 2008
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib
Sickly and malnourished, Kirana Kapito began his working life on a large commercial tobacco estate in Malawi's northern region. The farms sell their produce on the country's auction floors directly to international corporations including Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco.
Kirana is one of 250 million children across the world involved in work that is damaging to their mental, physical and emotional development. Some 57 million of these endangered children live in Sub-Sahara Africa. And with an estimated 1.4 million child laborers, the small, southern African nation of Malawi has the highest incidence of child labor in southern Africa, according to the Olso, Norway-based, FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science.
Kirana was eight years old when he first went to work in the fields. Estate owners transported him and his parents from their home village, Mulanje, along with 45 other families. The truck journey covered more than 1,000 kilometers and ended in the tobacco fields in Rumphi in northern Malawi.
Kirana's mother, Jane Kapito, 45, says the family left home seeking a better life. “Four years later, my whole family is still struggling with poverty. My son has to work as hard as everyone else if we have to afford the basic necessities. The money that my husband and I receive from the tobacco estate is not enough,” she says.
Now 12, Kirana has never been to school. For the past six months, his health has been failing and he can no longer work as hard as he used to. His mother says her little boy is malnourished and therefore contracts different infections easily. The family often goes without a proper meal for up to three days.
“Just in the past two months, Kirana has been afflicted by malaria, ........ and pneumonia,” Jane Kapito said. “He's my only child and I am so scared of losing him.”
This family's struggle is repeated throughout Malawi's tobacco industry, where poverty ensures that every member must contribute to the workload.
WHO | Tobacco and the rights of the child
I would like to have a Statement and Guarantee from our Chinese Supplier Friends on this, and it should be very convincing since China does not allow free press. This is a marketing issue for E-Cigarettes, too, if not resolved. Let's do it better than BAT!
I cannot love vaping while tobacco farmers and their children in China are possibly hungry, getting ill and dying early by handling poisonous tobacco leafs... 8-o
http://www.unfairtobacco.org/
Swiss television produced new documentary
Not only those who smoked tobacco, harm his health. Even tobacco farmers become ill through contact with the nicotine leaves. Toil on the plantations even children. Only then can they deliver the required quantity of tobacco multinationals. The consumer magazine "cash check" in the SF1 shows how these families suffer
English Language References:
CorpWatch.:.Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi
by Pilirani Semu-Banda, Special to CorpWatch
February 25th, 2008
Cartoon by Khalil BendibSickly and malnourished, Kirana Kapito began his working life on a large commercial tobacco estate in Malawi's northern region. The farms sell their produce on the country's auction floors directly to international corporations including Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco.
Kirana is one of 250 million children across the world involved in work that is damaging to their mental, physical and emotional development. Some 57 million of these endangered children live in Sub-Sahara Africa. And with an estimated 1.4 million child laborers, the small, southern African nation of Malawi has the highest incidence of child labor in southern Africa, according to the Olso, Norway-based, FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science.
Kirana was eight years old when he first went to work in the fields. Estate owners transported him and his parents from their home village, Mulanje, along with 45 other families. The truck journey covered more than 1,000 kilometers and ended in the tobacco fields in Rumphi in northern Malawi.
Kirana's mother, Jane Kapito, 45, says the family left home seeking a better life. “Four years later, my whole family is still struggling with poverty. My son has to work as hard as everyone else if we have to afford the basic necessities. The money that my husband and I receive from the tobacco estate is not enough,” she says.
Now 12, Kirana has never been to school. For the past six months, his health has been failing and he can no longer work as hard as he used to. His mother says her little boy is malnourished and therefore contracts different infections easily. The family often goes without a proper meal for up to three days.
“Just in the past two months, Kirana has been afflicted by malaria, ........ and pneumonia,” Jane Kapito said. “He's my only child and I am so scared of losing him.”
This family's struggle is repeated throughout Malawi's tobacco industry, where poverty ensures that every member must contribute to the workload.
WHO | Tobacco and the rights of the child
I would like to have a Statement and Guarantee from our Chinese Supplier Friends on this, and it should be very convincing since China does not allow free press. This is a marketing issue for E-Cigarettes, too, if not resolved. Let's do it better than BAT!
I cannot love vaping while tobacco farmers and their children in China are possibly hungry, getting ill and dying early by handling poisonous tobacco leafs... 8-o
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