Taj fought through two separate wars over the past ten years. Sadly, many children like Taj were left Orphaned, Jal lived through a horrific ordeal. On his journey through countless miles of desert he saw the remains of adults and children that had become a casualty of war. Taj was asked to kill for the army. Taj had witnessed the deaths of friends and family, He was only seven years old at the time. as was asked to kill other soildiers and civilians. These war weapons were very large and taj could hardly lift one. There were times when taj nearly starved to near-cannibalism, due to the lack of food, he contemplated suicide. People often have a hard time associating children with violence. All this child had known was violence, forced child labor has an everlasting effect. This is mental abuse, forced child labor soils a child spirit. Jal suffered this on a daily basis. Jal survived, but his experience scarred him physically and mentally. The circumstances aren't always like how Jal's were when he was brought into child labor.
Sometimes children are sold into labor by their relatives. Chaga and the Chocolate Factory is a children's book by Bob Hartman based on the true life of a young boy in Mali, that illustrates how that happens. The book is about a young boy named Chaga whose parents sell him to a man to go work at a cocoa plantation (or the "chocolate factory") This book touches base on certain circumstances of human trafficking that people often don't realize. Not all children, or anyone for that matter, are sold into human trafficking maliciously. Because we come from a prosperous, functioning society with a moral code it is hard for us to wrap our minds around the fact that there are people out there living in poverty-stricken, disease-filled villages in developing countries that are without food, clean water, an education, a just government, and a home where they don't fall asleep fearing an attack on the village the following morning.
