Boys are using large machetes to clear weeds on a farm in Ghana. They should be in school.

Children work long days for very little money. They can buy a banana but not a loaf of bread.

Families have no choice. They need the money to survive.

The cocoa these children help produce might end up in chocolate bars that claim to be sustainable.

Big chocolate companies promised to stop child labor over 20 years ago.

Some chocolate bars have logos that say they are made with sustainable cocoa.

But the reality is different from what the companies promise.

Children are working on farms.

We traveled to Ghana's cocoa-growing regions. We saw many poor villages and farms.

As we got closer to the border with Côte d'Ivoire, we saw more police checkpoints.

Ghana is one of the biggest cocoa producers in the world.

There are over 800,000 cocoa farms in Ghana. Most are owned by poor families.

We have videos of children doing hard work on cocoa farms during school hours.

Child labor is not just children helping their families. It's work that keeps them out of school or hurts them.

Some boys were filmed cutting weeds on a farm that participates in a sustainability program.

The program promises to help cocoa farmers and stop child labor.

More children were filmed doing hazardous work during school hours.

A nine-year-old boy and his siblings carried heavy water containers on their heads.

This is a bad form of child labor.

It's hazardous and hurts the children and the environment.

Young boys were collecting cocoa pods and carrying heavy loads on their heads.

The videos were filmed by someone who wanted to show the truth about child labor in Ghana.

The man who filmed the videos is a victim of child labor himself.

He says this is what poverty looks like.

Children miss school to work on the farm during harvest season.

Families struggle to survive because they don't make enough money from cocoa.

Nathaniel is a farmer who says he is certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

He says growing cocoa doesn't make enough money to support his family.

He struggles financially and lives in a poor community.

His kitchen has buckets of water but not much else.

Mondelēz said it's concerned about child labor and will invest in its sustainability program.

The company plans to spend $1.4 billion on the program by 2030.

Child labor and poverty are the chocolate industry's 'dirty secret'.

These problems have existed for decades.

The industry promised to stop child labor 25 years ago.

But deadlines were missed, and child labor remains a problem.

More than 20 years after the promise, child labor and poverty are still widespread.

A union leader represents over 400,000 farmers in Ghana.

He says 95% of farmers don't make a living income.

Farmers struggle to survive without basic necessities like water and healthcare.

Certification bodies should work directly with farmers, not just companies.

Carolyn Kitto says certification schemes are just marketing labels.

They make money for chocolate companies but don't help farmers.

Most certification schemes mix certified and non-certified cocoa.

This means companies can use a certification logo even if the cocoa isn't certified.

A human rights lawyer says consumers are being lied to.

Certification is a promise to consumers, but it's often broken.

Consumers don't know the truth about child labor and deforestation.

Rainforest Alliance says certification helps measure progress.

All major sustainability initiatives use the same system.

Changing the system would cost money.

We visited another community with similar poverty and hardship.

Farmers sell cocoa to big traders, but they remain poor.

A block of chocolate might cost $8, but the farmer only gets 72 cents.

Most of the money goes to the chocolate company and supermarkets.

If farmers got just 20 cents more per block, they could escape poverty.

Mondelēz made over $50 billion in revenue last year.

Paying farmers a living income would cost the companies very little.

Real change will come when consumers understand the problem and demand action.

The problems are driven by greed and ignorance.

Consumers need to see the human cost behind a block of chocolate.

The truth is hidden behind a delicious treat.

Additional reporting by Dylan Welch.

Photography by Rob Hill and Jack Fisher.

Watch the full investigation on ABC TV and iview.

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Related topics.

Australia.

Food and Beverage Processing Industry.

Food and Drink.

Ghana.

Human Rights.

Poverty.