31 May Stop The Traffik Exhibition
People shouldn’t be bought and sold.
It’s obvious, right?
And yet, it happens. Regularly and in huge numbers around the world, and the UK is inextricably linked in with this trade. If you eat chocolate, the chances are the cocoa beans came from the Ivory Coast, where thousands of children, as young as 10yrs old, are trafficked to pick and harvest the beans. They work long hours with no choice, no pay, no freedom and in dangerous, harmful conditions.
(Buying bars with the Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade logo is the best way to ensure you’re getting traffik-free chocolate.)
A recent collaboration between Manchester College graphic design students and Stop The Traffik aimed to raise awareness of these issues and I was asked along to their opening exhibition at Cord Bar in the Northern Quarter to take a look (and some photos).
The students had done amazingly, and I was really impressed with their creative, thoughtful and provoking responses to the brief…
There was a panel of industry experts present who questioned the students on every aspect of their designs and thought processes before awarding the winners.
Congratulations to all the designers for their hard work and to the winners.
And huge thanks to Hannah from IJM, for inviting me down!
For further information on human traffiking and forced labour:
Stop The Traffik
International Justice Mission UK