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Spreading the Word About Sweatshops
Your latest pair of jeans or sneakers may have cost you plenty. But they cost others a lot more.

In countries around the world, poor people work in "sweatshops" to produce the clothing you buy. To keep costs down, sweatshop owners pay low wages and force even children to work long hours in unsafe conditions.

When a group of middle and high school students in Albany, New York learned about this, they decided to do something about it. They organized a statewide conference to spread the word to other students about sweatshops and child labor. For two days, more than 160 students learned the real cost of a pair of jeans.

The conference was just the beginning. Some students raised money to help build new schools in needy overseas communities. Others held a Sweatfree Schools student poster contest.

Now students of all ages are coming up with ideas about what they and their schools can do to combat sweatshops and child labor.

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