Garments Doing Good for Ghana

Aug 1, 2008

This hoodie is printed with 1>0's story on the inside of the hood. The apparel line is available at boutiques, as well as at Bloomingdale's, across the country.

While most teenagers worry about passing their driver's license tests or securing dates for the homecoming dance, eight 14- and 15-year-old girls from Long Island, N.Y., are focusing on saving children from forced labor in Ghana's fishing villages.

After seeing a 2007 episode of "Oprah" titled "The Little Boy that Oprah Couldn't Forget," which showed the harsh lives of children trafficked into servitude by their families for as little as $20 a year, the girls discovered that it took about $4,300 to rescue one child.

The girls formed the non-profit 1>0 (One is Greater than None) and began crafting bracelets and necklaces during their after-school hours, hoping to sell enough to raise the money needed to rescue one child. Within months, the girls teamed with Kerry Gillick-Goldberg, who oversees public relations, marketing and sales for the apparel division, to obtain a licensing deal for a 1>0 clothing collection, which has taken off since its launch last August.

"The line has been so well-received," Gillick-Goldberg says. "A lot of high-end, contemporary boutiques picked up the collection, and we landed Bloomingdale's in February."

The line includes T-shirts, dorm pants, hoodies and more printed with the 1>0 logo. At least 10% of the profits from each garment sold goes directly toward rescuing Ghana's enslaved children.

The girls earned $34,400 in nine months — the amount needed for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to rescue eight children and pay for their care for two and a half years. The girls now want to sponsor a full rescue mission of 25 children.

To learn more about 1>0, visit oneisgreaterthannone.org.

— S.M.

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