Freedom

In my line of work, I come across stories about 'Poverty', 'Child Slavery', 'Social Injustice' and 'Human Trafficking', among many others.

I came across this company which produces Freeset bags and got to know the story behind each bag and would like to share this story with you.

The Freeset Story

Each Freeset Bag tells a story of one woman's journey to freedom. She used to stand with 6,000 other prostitutes in a small but well known area of North Calcutta. She didn't choose her profession; it chose her. Poverty does that. It robs people of their dignity and children of their innocence.

She still lives in the same area, but instead of selling her body she makes Freeset Bags. Now she has choices, the choice to work decent hours for decent pay, to re-establish her dignity in her community and to learn to read and write. Now her daughter won't have to stand in the street selling her body like her mother used to. Freedom has been passed on to the next generation.

Bitter Chocolate

Chocolate is an unexplainable pleasure. The way it melts in your mouth, filling the inside of your mouth with luscious pleasure, and leaving that nice and creamy after taste in your mouth. But there is a bitter story behind chocolate. 43% the world's cocoa beans come from the Ivory Coast in Africa. The International Labour Organisation says 12,000 children have been trafficked to the Ivory Coast to work in the cocoa farms under extreme and harsh conditions with no proper food and care, not to mention the constant physical abuse that they suffer.



It is very ironic that something that brings such pleasure to most people in the world, especially in the Western world where you find the most chocolate consumers, is actually derived from the pain and suffering of others in poor countries.