We are always looking for ways to help those in need. In 2009, Greenlight Organic donated over 9,000 T-shirts to three different charities. The primary recipient of the T-shirts was the Sacramento Food Bank.

We collected all the items that were leftover from previous clients' events. Rather than stocking T-shirts in warehouses for a few more years until they would have been donated to Goodwill, we made sure all the apparel went straight to those in need.

Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services provides over 450,000 articles of clothing free of charge to families and individuals in need throughout the Sacramento community. We know that many families are going through hard financial times and were happy to contribute our resources toward a worthy cause.

Forty-four minutes after the race had begun, the first leaders began to pass through the finish line. The first to finish the 10k, Grace Hung, out of San Francisco, averaged around 7 minutes per mile. Coming in at around 8 minutes per mile, Kevin Davis from Santa cruz, was the first male to finish the 10k.

After an hour and twelve minutes, the first to finish the half marathon sped up to pass the finish line. His name and city of residence were announced: Ricardo Cardeno from Medellin, Colombia. We ran to give him a cap and congratulate him on his achievement. The more I spoke with him, the more it became obvious that he does this for a living. In fact, he’s a triathlon participant. When I asked him to describe his training regime, he explained that he trains three times per day with breaks in between. His training consists of a few hours running, later swimming, or finally cycling; he changes the order.

Around 12 minutes later, approximately one hour and twenty five minutes from the beginning of the race, I heard the announcer say “Here comes the first woman in the half marathon to cross the finish line.” Curious we kept listening as he described that she, too, was from Colombia. When I went over to ask Ricardo if he knew who the first woman to finish the marathon was, he said, “yes, my wife.”

Ricardo and his wife, Carmenza Morales, travel around the world participating in marathons and triathlons. Carmenza, a physical education certified professional, has been competing since 1990. Her husband decided to join her in 1995. They participated in the half marathon after having competed in the Santa Cruz triathlon a week before, where Carmenza finished second in the women’s individual competition.

Training regimes among other participants differed. Some had specifically devoted themselves to a six-week training at the gym or with friends. Others trained by running steadily for a couple of hours, two to three times per week, for about 3-6 months.

At the finish line, each runner had to return the tags they wore on their shoes. The blue mats located about 30 yards away from the finish line scanned the tags. These tags gave the announcer the details of each runner, such as their names, their city of residence, and their times. This made time recording automatic and easily accessible from the Internet.

The finish line festival was full of booths providing free samples of energy drinks, multi-vitamins, massage services, music from Live 105 (the local alternative rock radio station) and food for the St. Jude’s Heroes (runners who had signed up and raised funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and Research Institute). Greenlight Organic’s booth was there to support the runners, sell merchandise and spread the word about our cause: fighting child labor.

The micro-lending movement was spurred by the success of Grameen Bank, a micro-finance institution funded in Bangladesh, India by Muhammad Yunus. The bank makes small loans or micro-loans to the poor, who lack credit and assets. Today, several institutions have adopted micro-lending services to improve the lives of the poor around the world.

Micro-loans help to develop and support leaders in poverty-stricken communities. Non-governmental organizations work with microfinance institutions to set up business lending programs for the impoverished to take on self-employment projects. In addition to the financial services offered, micro-finance institutions may often provide business advisory education for borrowers. Educating borrowers in business development and financial management may ensure that the loans advanced are used effectively, that businesses are sustainable, and that the loans will be paid back in a timely manner.

Most of the micro-loans funded by micro-finance institutions have been targeted toward women, to empower them and to allow them to be contributing members of a new economy of leaders. Around the world, women often subject themselves to the sexual trade, as they are not given many opportunities due to a number of sociological factors. By empowering women, their children and surrounding communities become empowered. According to Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn's book "Half The Sky," women who earn money tend to invest more of it in their children's education as well as in the growth of their businesses, as opposed to men, who may often spend 50% of their earnings on alcohol and tobacco. Sexual slavery and child trafficking may cease to exist as communities become more educated and economically developed. In addition, women who bring money to their households are beaten less and respected more by their husbands, as well as in-laws.

An interesting, innovative, and completely necessary social entrepreneurship, the SHE28 campaign serves to empower women in health by helping to fulfill girls’ and women’s unmet need and assist local women in developing countries to jump-start their own businesses to manufacture and distribute affordable, quality, and eco-friendly sanitary pads. SHE will look to use local raw materials, instead of all imported materials, to ensure affordability and accessibility. What better way to help women than by taking care of their health needs and empowering them to earn money for themselves and support their families and communities?

By Vania A. B.

When you go to the mall to start shopping, do you ever wonder how the item was made, or who it was made by? Apparel industries certainly won’t post billboards showing you who makes their clothes, nor the conditions in which they are made because large corporations outsource the majority of their manufacturing. In many cases, the manufacturing of goods is further outsourced to ever cheaper and more unethical factories. All to obtain the least expensive manufacturing and for large retailers to protect their bottom line.

Unfortunately, the suppliers that are able to meet the large retailers’ requests will be those which are able to produce the item efficiently and at a low cost. This is the way business is, the way it has always been. How long has slavery been used as a means to compete in the markets? How long has poverty existed? The answers: a long, long time. In the 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution, children worked twelve hours per day. Currently, according to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 in child labor worldwide, excluding child domestic labor.

In developing countries, the poorest families have no other option but to send their kids to work in farms, in the coal industry, in the garment industry, or worse, in the sex trade. As long as poverty exists and the only available opportunities are not sufficient to cover the costs of living, child labor will go on. In spite of the many documentaries or stories depicting the world child labor crisis, many of us will forget when we go to the store to buy that new gadget, or that new sweater. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Fortunately, there may be a new way of doing business: social entrepreneurships. Social entrepreneurships are ventures that seek to solve a social problem while at the same time making a profit. While this may add to the overhead in terms of management and cost, it allows corporations like Greenlight Organic to control the supply chain and make sure the materials and manufacturing are procured in a manner that enables fair labor practices to be applied. In addition, there are countless non-profits which seek to solve the World Child Labor Crisis. There are way too many movements out there that seek your help, your attention like labor rights movements, or United Students Against Sweatshops. If you would like to read more about different forms of child slavery, read this article from TIME magazine. Also, to find out about Human Trafficking, see Change.org's Human Trafficking blog. Feel free to share other stories, blogs, or movements in the comments section. Click "read more" at the end of this article to participate.

By Vania A. B.

Many of us dump our out-of-style T-shirts, jeans, and other clothing into the large bins at Goodwill or The Salvation Army. Did you know that only a small percentage of the donated clothing is re-sold to other consumers? Most of what's donated ends up somewhere else.

The rate at which Americans consume and dispose of clothing has increased so much that local donation centers are saturated; they have more donations then they can handle. Though some clothing is then donated to other countries by non-profit organizations, some is not. "The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy" by Pietra Rivoli, points out that your old T-shirt passes through many hands across the globe. To begin, textile recycling factories in the US purchase much of the clothing from the donation centers, at a few cents per pound.

At textile-recycling factories, used clothes are separated into different categories. Those that are vintage, such as old concert tees from the 60s, are re-sold to Japan. The Japanese are the largest consumers of high quality used or vintage clothing and are willing pay top dollar. The rest of the clothing, which may or may not be in good condition, gets sold around the world. The most shattered clothing goes to factories which make use of the rags to clean their machines.

Africa is the largest buyer of used American clothing. Africans are under the impression that Americans and Europeans are selling their clothing to them. They are not aware that clothing is donated. Some of the clothing that reaches Africa is intended for donation to those in need. However, distributors seeking to make a profit from the clothing imports may often intervene. In the end, the clothing that reaches the needy is often in poor, unwearable condition. Africa's needy have to conform with the rags left behind.

How did this begin? According to the Textile Industry in Tanzania, from 1980-1985, Tanzanian's experienced a shortage of goods including clothes. Although local initiatives of producing clothes emerged in 1961, such as batik and tie and dye, it was of a poor quality and not easily affordable to the Tanzanian community. Some people, especially those in the Southern part of Tanzania, at that time, decided to wear sacks. The sacks became shirts and skirts or something to wrap-up. In order to fill the gap, some businessmen/women started to smuggle in used clothes. It is at this time, the used clothes became important and its status was raised. Fortunately, small business owners are able to take advantage of this trade; the 'mitumba' or used clothing trade. Distributors that take advantage of clothing coming into Africa sell the higher quality clothing to other small businesses. In turn, profits from the sale of used clothing allow small business owners to support their families. However, the mitumba trade has devastated other textile manufacturers or its ability to progress because they are cheaper than the textiles made with the small amount of resources given to textile producers. In addition, farmers depending on farming cotton are also affected at a large extent due to the collapse of the textile industries and of course due to the world market as well.

There is a need to control the importation so that countries like Tanzania will not become a dumping place. Only clothes in good quality should be imported and donated. However, the process to ban Mitumba should can only be a gradual one and is dependent upon Africa's government to set the standards.

How can we make this better? If you want to know for sure that your used clothes are going to a good cause, you can give them directly to someone in need or take them to a recycling center that will recycle the fibers of your old garments to make new ones.

View this video depicting the "mitumba" trade - where your donated clothing goes for sale in Africa: