What Do You Know About Your Cheap Sweatshop Knock-Off Accessories?

When people see a good, quality made knock-off their first instinct is to buy it. Many people can't tell the difference between the real deal and a well-made copy, and let's face it, paying $600 for a handbag is borderline lunacy. Very seldom will I, the queen of bargains, tell anyone to shove their $20 back in their pocket and give up purchasing convincing fake, but this time I am breaking my own rules and doing so.

Despite what people believe, there are some families in China that do have more than the government allowed one child. Some ethnic minority groups that live in small villages have two to four children, and in event of illness or work lay-offs, and the parents are unable to provide for their children, the government's welfare is barely enough to keep the family in food, and the struggle begins. Often times, children will leave school and venture into larger cities looking for work in factories that make famous name knock-offs. These children will move into the factory boarding rooms and this will be home until they grow up and return to their village to marry.

The children are as young as eight, and get very little sleep in order to make enough money to help their families. With the overtime, these children can earn $100 or more per month, when the minimum wage is barely over $80 per month. These young workers will not keep any money for themselves; instead they will send their entire earnings home, so that other siblings may have clothing and go to school. Education in China is not free. Tuition and board costs approximately $125 per year.

Child laborers work back-to-back shifts, and turn out everything from Tiffany jewelry to famous-name handbags and even faux Rolex watches. Many of these factories in China produce the real products by day, and night workers produce the fakes, which is why the copies are so convincing and are often passed off as the real deal. Labels used for the real merchandise are set aside, and sewn into the fakes. Even some self-proclaimed fashionistas can't tell the difference.

These children sometimes survive on as little as one bowl of rice per day, and go 24-hours or more without sleep. Death due to exhaustion isn't uncommon, and outraged activist gropus devote much of their time to "freeing" these child workers from the hell of the factories. More often than not, that act of kindness gets a reaction of anger from the child laborers. These children depend on the work to help their impoverished families. Without this work, the children will be tossed out into the streets to fend for themselves with nowhere to live, and no money to get home, since their wages have been sent to their families.

The legal age to work in China is 16 years-old. The children of age will find work elsewhere, but the left-behind younger children are left to turn to theft and prostitution as means of survival. Organizations such as the Hong Kong based Teacher of Ten Thousand Generations Foundation work to reach these children and put them in schools, paying their tuition and board from donations. This organization regularly stands at the entrance to the factories and hands out fliers offering their assistance, showing these young workers that there is an alternative. They hope to spread the message that children do not need to resort to traveling to these factories to work; they can relieve their families of the burden of having one more mouth to feed on a small income by accepting the charity's help, instead of working illegally in factories.

Of the children taken in by charitable organizations, many will complete school and receive scholarships to go to college, also paid for with donated funds. There will be success stories, and with more people becoming aware, there will be many more success stories in years to come.