The reality of chocolate is far from romantic. Around 70% of the world's production of cocoa comes from West Africa — Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon. Most of the chocolate sold in Australia will contain cocoa from West Africa, produced by children forced to work in slave-like conditions or who have been trafficked. The US Department of State estimates that more than 109,000 children in Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa industry work under "the worst forms of child labor", and that some 10,000 are victims of human trafficking or enslavement.

Think about it. One of life's simple pleasures, one we share as an expression of love, comes to us courtesy of children who have been taken from their families and denied a childhood. Children who don't understand what the beans they collect are used for, because they have never seen chocolate.

For Christian leaders Carolyn and Fuzz Kitto, a much better expression of love is to work together to combat modern slavery. When they heard the international coalition Stop the Traffik was looking for someone to take the lead in Australia, Carolyn, who had been involved with World Vision's Don't Trade Lives campaign here, immediately put her hand up.

"This is such a no brainer," says Carolyn. "I'm not saying this is a simple issue, because there are lots of complexities, but it is as simple as a six year old can decide not to eat a Freddo Frog."

The Stop the Traffik campaign style uses many of the strategies pioneered by William Wilberforce and the activists who worked to abolish the British slave trade 200 years ago. The abolitionists asked ordinary people to stop using sugar, which was imported from the slave plantations. In doing so they changed a culture that until then had seen slavery as 'necessary'.

"In all the years in the justice movement, the big breakthroughs happen when we've been able to get people involved in action," says Fuzz.

So while human trafficking is not just about chocolate, it's a good place to start. And although Stop the Traffik is lobbying the Federal Government to make it an offence to knowingly import goods produced using trafficked labour, their primary focus is on getting individuals to reassess their own choices.

Fuzz and Carolyn bring it back to Christian principles. "It's about, what are the economics of the kingdom of God?" says Fuzz.

"That wonderful verse that we've sung all about and used, about seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all this will be given to you. Jesus is saying, don't worry about tomorrow and it's problems; don't worry about what you're going to drink and eat, and what clothes you're going to wear, but seek first the kingdom of God and these things will be given to you.

"You unpack that, what he's saying is, when we live under the economics of the kingdom of God there's enough to go around, there's enough to share and people will have what is adequate.

"When we live by these things that Jesus calls us to, we can do justice. People can have a fair go, and we can live in a harmony which is unattainable because we have this unjust competition."

Unfortunately, worldly pragmatism gets in the way. The world's biggest chocolate companies have been 'in conversations' with Stop the Traffik since 2001, and don't deny that slave labour is used to produce their chocolate. Most have made the token gesture of moving one of their products into line with ethical standards — in the case of Mars, their Mars Bar, for Cadbury it's the plain Dairy Milk bars — and say they are committed to change. But progress is painfully slow.

One of the arguments is that there is not enough ethically produced chocolate to meet the world's cravings. While cocoa from Latin America doesn't have the same problems with forced labour, there's not enough of it. But, says Carolyn, that's a cop-out. "It's not that hard and it's not that expensive to make the change."

One of the concerns some people have is whether, by boycotting certain products, they are taking away someone's livelihood.

"One of the questions is, 'In these conditions, are they providing an income for their families?'" says Carolyn. "That is a big issue. I've worked

in international development for a long time, so I know that some families would rather put up with those conditions to be able to eat. But what you're talking about in the chocolate industry is children being kidnapped.

"There's not any money going back to their communities."

In fact, trafficking breaks down communities; when children do leave the cocoa plantations, they often find it hard to return to their families, and there is strong evidence that many of them transition into becoming child soldiers.

The issue is complex. Carolyn explains that one of the factors leading to the exploitation of children in the chocolate industry is a condition placed on poor countries by the International Monetary Fund that they remove the cocoa tariff, making it impossible for them to compete in the world market paying adult wages.

"It's not as simple as saying there are some nasty people on the west coast of Africa," she reminds us. "It's actually a whole global system that's incredibly complex. But those incredibly complex global systems can be broken simply by the choices we make, by what we buy."

Your actions can make a difference.

1. Buy chocolate that has been independently certifiedas Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance or UTZ to ensure you are supporting fair wages for cocoa plantation workers and farmers. If you need help, download the Stop the Traffik Good Chocolate Guide at http://stopthetraffik.org.au/take-action/chocolate/

2. Ask your favourite chocolate company to ensure their cocoa is free from trafficking and child labour.

3. Hold a chocolate fondue party this Easter to raise awareness about trafficking in the cocoa industry.Everything you need is available from the Stop the Traffik website.

This artice was first published in Revive Magazine.