I'm being two-faced, what should I do

Question

I am 16 years old.

I plan to spend my life helping people in less fortunate countries, and lately I've been more interested (or should I say disgusted) in human rights violations. Although I am still young and I know I may change my mind I feel like this is my calling. Like this is what I am supposed to do with my life.

So this is my problem: How can I say I want to try and help people who are treated unfairly (ex:slavery) and especially children if the clothes I am wearing are probably made by those very children?

I have looked for clothes that are sweat-shop free but they're all very expensive not to mention sold online so you have to add shipping and handling costs. Plus I live in Canada, so lots of companies don't ship up here or it's even more expensive to do so. I just don't know what to do; I feel like I'm living a lie or being two-faced.

I would really really appreciate your help here, thanks.

Answer 1

Just be sure you know that if you stop buying those jeans made by people who think 41 cents a day is a lot (enough to feed their children) then you are taking away the livelihood of the very people you profess to want to help. So, when you join the peace corps and you get to their languishing village and you enter the hut they scrounged together from forraged timber, make sure you give a big hug and kiss to the starving 2 yr old that looks like it's only 11 months old.

Learn how to sew.

Answer 2

Give yourself a pat on the back from me for being aware. I give and buy most of my clothes from goodwill or other thrift shops to save money and reuse clothes and since some of the profit goes to help people. Other than that, I dont really know what else there is you can do... but its definitely not your fault you cant afford those expensive clothes so dont worry yourself too much about that.

Answer 3

buy all your clothes from the salvation army...in my opinion, once it hits the used, resale market, you are buying what would have been thrown out anyways, and the money is going to a worthey cause...