Captive To Cocoa

A little girl hides behind a frightened young woman's skirt. A distance away, two men talk. One of those men puts money, what would be the equivalent of $35.00, into the much younger man's hand. A woman who has been standing an even further distance away is motioned to come closer. She reluctantly puts out her cigarette and sidles up to the woman and child pair. The stranger man nods to the woman; the young people nod to each other. The no longer frightened young woman nudges the little girl from behind her skirt and then places the little girl's hand into the alien woman's hand. She will become the little girl's new friend. This friend coos and smiles to the little girl with an effort, promising sweet food and a shiny bicycle. The little girl only smells the foul cigarette odor on the breath of the other. And so, another child submits to the awful circumstances of hard and harsh labor in the cocoa fields. She is four years old. Her name is Yene. She will suffer for two years. Meet Professor Catherine Anne Campbell. Students at Basrouge University in Johnston, Pennsylvania have filled seats in her lecture hall for years to learn about Women's Rights. How does it come to be then, that a stubborn, willful woman from Johnston, Pennsylvania would meet a shy little girl from Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa? Once she becomes aware of the abominable conditions of a child as she toils over the cocoa pod, Cathy's passion to enter those cocoa farms to investigate and to save the children virtually imprisoned there causes her to make many a move. Cathy makes her move to rescue Yene. She takes her from Côte d'Ivoire into Mali. Anywhere in the world, taking a child without permission, even without malice aforethought, is damning. Capture might easily place Cathy in harm's way. Will she face a trial in the Cote d'Ivoire? Will she be caught by rogue others who might beat and brutalize both her and her newly found treasure, Yene? Can Cathy escape the country? If so, will Yene accompany her? Yene is held captive to cocoa. Can she truly find release? Trust me when I say, chocolate will never ever taste the same