Today I woke up at around 8 ish but kept falling in and out of sleep after that for another 2 hours. When I finally got out of bed, I went down stairs to the cafe and got a chocolate croissant since they were done serving breakfast,  and filled up my water because I was dying of thirst. At 2, we had the pleasure of having a guest speaker from Tony’s Chocolonely come in and give us a presentation on the business and how the company fights to better off cocoa farmers in West Africa. We were originally supposed to go in to the factory I believe, but unfortunately plans changed as today was a public holiday in Amsterdam.

Tony’s Chocolonely is a chocolate brand here in the Netherlands that prides themselves on the work that they do, and rightfully so. They operate under 5 main principles when it comes to sourcing their cocoa: traceable beans, paying a premium to farmers, strengthening the farmers they with with, working in long term commitments, and helping farmers to improve productivity and yield. Child labor is especially common in Côte d’lvoire, a country in West Africa (roughly 1/2 children are subject to it). Farmers there also get paid a mere $0.71 a day, which is half as much as the income required to be considered living in poverty. Because of this, they have to resort to using their own children to keep business going. These kids are pulled out of school to work in extremely dangerous conditions. So far they’ve partnered with over 15 thousand farmers, and had reducing child labor within cooperatives they’ve been working with for over 4 years from 46% to only 4%. While they aren’t big enough to have sway over the other main cocoa users like Nestle and Hershey’s, they are hoping to be ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability and these human rights measures, so that these big brands will have to follow in their footsteps.

After the talk, we got some free chocolate to take with us, and we then traveled to the superstore where I proceeded to buy even more chocolate. After this, we went to dinner which I was happily surprised with. We had Indonesian food which I have never had before, but it was quite good. After dinner, me and one of my roommates went and did some final souvenir shopping, and then we headed back to write our last blog and pack our things. I still haven’t packed (currently 11pm), sooooo I gotta get moving. Im very thankful for this opportunity as it has been absolutely incredible, and I hope I can find my way back in Europe one day in the future.