Hearts Should Be Free - Broken Heart 3G Cell Phone Giveaway

I won the 3G iPhone cell phone case from CafePress pictures above in a giveaway last year. Never used it and thought it would be a great item to give away for the Hearts Should Be Free event.

Hearts Should Be Free is a giveaway event to spread awareness of modern slavery.  Many people don't realize that slavery still exists today, yet there are as many as 27 million people enslaved today around the world.

Today I want to talk about how slave labor contributes to many of the products we find on our store shelves.  Sadly, forced labor contributes to many of the products we use and much of the produce that we buy. In recent years slave labor has been used for making clothes, for mining diamonds, mining gold and other minerals (including those used in our electronics),  farming coffee beans and cocoa, harvesting tomatoes (right here in America), and many, many other areas of farming and manufacturing.

I want to be clear...it isn't that companies go out and seek out slave labor.  But poor monitoring of a company's supply chain can allow forced labor to"sneak in" to the supply chain unnoticed. However, when large companies put in mechanisms to monitor and improve the working conditions throughout their supply chain, it can have a huge impact.

Since this giveaway is for an iPhone case (and I'll assume if you're entering you have an iphone), I'd like to share a couple related aps you can download to your phone.

The Fair Trade App
When you buy Fair Trade you know that you are buying a product that provides a living wage to workers all down the supply chain and that monitors it's working conditions.   This also helps guarantee that these products are not made with the work of slaves.  The Fair Trade App helps you find Fair Trade items near you, and allows you to help build their database by adding fair trade items you find for sale in your area. 


The Free2Work App
This app allows you to look up products to see how they rate on to trafficking and other labor abuses. Though it only has a few hundred products listed so far, and though the bar code scanning is a little buggy, I still like this app as it allows you to browse companies by category to see their rating, and so is a great way to find some of the companies who are already doing things to help rid their supply chain of slavery. 

I'd also encourage you to visit Chain Store Reaction, a website where you can write letters to companies urging them to take a stand against slavery, and can see their responses.

I'd also like to point you towards a couple articles related to Apple and it's labor policies....

Should Apple Make a Conflict Free Minerals iPhone
Slavery is rampant in the Congo, where revenue from the mines funds the militias which are a war there.  This Forbes article questions whether abstaining from buying conflict minerals is the best course of action, and highlights the complexities of this issue well.

Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory
While this program by This American Life (through NPR) is NOT about slavery, I felt it was relavant and wanted to include it.  This three act look at labor policies in China is EXCELLENT and, yes, even entertaining.  This program is in three section, or "acts, " which can be listened to together or separately.  While it doesn't deal with slavery directly (all the workers in the factory Mr. Daisey visited were payed a salary and could quit any time they wanted) it does highlight the importance of workplace monitoring, and the third act contains insightful commentary on workers rights and labor conditions around the world.

Now, on to the giveaway...

HOW TO ENTER
Just fill out the entry form below.  Giveaway ends February 29.  Open worldwide, 18+ only.  Form may take a minute or two to load.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fair Trade Chocholate Giveaways

This month I've been working to spread awareness of modern slavery through the Hearts Should Be Free Giveaway event.  Many people don't realize that slave labor contributes to many of the products we buy.  One of these is chocolate.

With Valentines coming up, it's sad to know that the cocoa in the chocolate we'll enjoy that day may have grown and harvested with slave labor.  And though the chocolate industry is beginning to step up, there's still a long way to go.

Buying Fair Trade chocolate is one way to help.  It supports companies who are already taking extra efforts to keep their supply chain slave free, and when they thrive, larger companies take note. 

I thought I'd track down some Fair Trade Chocolate giveaways going on in the blogosphere and share them with you...it's a fun way to get to know about some of the fair trade options out there!  A lot of these are low entry too!

Fair Trade Chocolate Giveaways

Organized by End Date

Ends February 17
The Body Shop Chocomania Gift Package
(Ok, so this chocolate is not to eat...
but it would make a chocholaty spa experience,
and doescontain fair trade items!)

Ends February 20
Whole Foods Chocolate Treats (Canada Only)

End Date Unknown
Dark Chocholate Quinoa
Fair Trade Rose Bouquet an Chocolate
Alter Echo Fair Trade Chocolate Quinoa Bar 



Looking for a Fair Trade Chocolate at your local store?
Click here for an excellent article about the labels you may see
on chocolate (and other products...the article is actually about cofee)
and what they mean.)

And here's some more info about regular vs. fair trade chocolate:

Infographic by Fair Trade Vancouver and ethical ocean.

Creative Commons Chocolate Pictures by Hayouji. 

The Chocolate Industry Begans to Step Up

Several years ago a friend posted a link about how slavery contributes to much of the chocolate sold in stores today.  It opened my eyes to labor slavery.

Since then many companies have made strides to change their practices to reduce slave labor in their supply chains.  One hold-out was Hersheys.  Well, late in January Hersheys made their first step towards addressing this problem.  They have made a commitment to purchase Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa for all of its Bliss Chocolate products, starting later this year.  While this is just one product, and this specific certification only requires 30% of the cocoa beans in a certified product to be fair trade...its still a step in the right direction.

Hersheys is following the lead of other companies which have made earlier steps, including...

• Nestle has hired the Fair Labor Association, and organization which  specializes in accountability, to investigate and document child labor on the farms of it's cocoa suppliers. Nestlé is the first food company to open up its supply chain to the FLA.  Read More Here.

• Mars committed to certify its Maltesers chocolate candy as Fairtrade in the UK and Ireland in 2012.  While this is only one candy, this candy is the third largest brand in the UK and represents a 10% increase in total UK Fairtrade sales there. Read more here.

• Barry Callebaut introduced three new fair trade chocolates into the US market in December 2011.  Read more here.

• Unilever announced that it will use Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa for its Magnum Ice Cream by 2015.  From Article Here

• Ben and Jerry's, another Unilever brand, announced that it intends to get  Fair Trade Certification for all flavors for all products where fair trade certification is possible by 2013.  From Article Here

In other good news, California passed a new law to bring more transparency to business supply chains.

Easy Wins

The cool thing about blog giveaways is you can usually tell now many people are entered. The less entered, the better your chances to win. Here's some I found with low entries ending soon.

Ends February 4

Love Banner (2 entered)  

Celtic Woman (17 entered)*

$15 Loopy Loop GC  (16 entered)

Ends February 7

Valentines Bundle (36 entered)

Ends February 8

4 X 6 Art Print (33 entered)

 *I got extra entries for blogging about starred giveaways.

If you have a giveaway with less than 60 entries per prize ending in the next 5 days, please click here to submit it. 

Please Also Visit Our Giveaway Event

to spread awareness about modern slavery!

Aloha Friday/2 Question Thursday

Every once and a while I participate in Aloha Friday, where I ask a simple question for you to answer (nothing that requires a lengthy response) and Two Question Thursday (same idea...only TWO questions).   My questions for you today (which you can answer in the comments if you like ) are:

• There are many problem in the world, and many good causes we can support.  Is there a particular cause which is on your heart? 

•  What have you done about it...or what do you plan to do?

There are various causes which I care about.  If you've been following my blog at all the last couple weeks you can probably guess which one "gets to me" the most.  When I first learned that slavery still existed I was horrified...but it was something "far away" and I was a poor college student and didn't see what I could do.  Surprisingly I didn't hear more about this issue for several years...but then I started to stumble on articles here and there.  I learned that it was very widespread...and that it didn't just happen across the world but that it happened here.  I learned that men in Florida had been beaten and locked in a truck and forced to pick tomatoes for nothing, that women and young girls are forced to prostitute themselves by violent pimps on US streets daily, that 1,000s are trafficked into the US every year for forced work of one sort or another.  I learned that forced labor (here and abroad) contributes  to almost every product we buy.  And I learned about the horrors of child sex trafficking, and how American pediphiles helped fuel the "sex tourism" industry in Asia.

I thought of what I could do, and I came up with an idea to use giveaways to spread awareness.  In stead of asking someone to go check out a product to enter, I'd ask them to check out some info on human trafficking.   I put this idea into practice this month in the Hearts Should Be Free Giveaway Event.  And the response I've gotten is so encouraging.  More people have entered these giveaways than any I've held here before, and the comments let me know people are really hearing.

So, whatever it is that's the cause of your heart....I want to encourage you that you can do something about it.  Being part of the solution is not out of reach. 

Tuesday Treasury: Lace Blossom Valentines Charity

All these items benefit charity. Click on listing to see where and how much is donated. (Some items may list this info in the main page in stead).  Check back every Tuesday for more hand-made gifts for charity!

Sweetheart Barrette / H... angelsandcraft... $5.95	Faith HumblePye $30.00	Hand for Haiti 8 x 10 thewheatfield $15.00
panda sleeping, size 12... BubbaluBaby $51.00	Christmas Flower Fancy ... greersjewelsof... $12.00	Kawaii Sticker Japanes... KawaiiTokyo $4.98
Darling Red and Aqua or... Sanguinaria $10.00	American Heart Angel ( ... angelsandcraft... $11.00	Aqua and Red Flowers iP... pippichick $23.99
Pretty in Red by Allie ... localhoneymark... $14.00	Catnip Toy Heart "... thedots $9.00	Valentine Card with Jap... Vamperstein $3.00
Set of 6 Blank Notes DragonflyPaper... $5.99	love birds in purple fo... BubbaluBaby $45.00	Cherry Blossom Coasters... LaMaisonLuxe $30.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.