Child labor is an appalling practice all on its own. People who support it infuriatingly maintain that “at least it’s a way to get poor kids to be able to support themselves and their families.” Ask the same person if that same fate is good enough for his or her kids, luckily born into privilege, and see what happens.

Proponents also don’t seem to be aware that vast numbers of child laborers are not working for their families; they have been kidnapped or stolen through human trafficking and sold as slaves. Their lives are hard, meager, and brief. They earn no money. Those who do actually work for pennies for their families certainly aren’t making enough money to eat off of, let alone “support” themselves or anyone else. The argument presented is simply a self-defense mechanism to allow people who don’t want to think about (or don’t care about) the plight of others to sleep easily at night.

What’s even more heinous is when child labor is used for things that kids themselves would typically use. Disney products, for example, that are made through child labor are a gross example of irony. Another example that I hadn’t heard of up until now is Gymboree.

Gymboree, along with Abercrombie & Fitch, has failed to denounce forced child labor in the cotton industry. According to their company policies, they can still obtain materials from such means—as well as continue to perpetuate this violent, desolate industry by not speaking up for children.

In Uzbekistan, the government itself takes millions of kids out of school every year to work the cotton fields. The cotton harvest season, which takes place right now, is a time of year when so many kids are forced to become adults, getting harmed in the fields and working until exhaustion by order of their own government. Countries across the globe have condemned this practice, as have over 65 of the world’s largest clothing companies—save for these two.

Whether or not Abercrombie & Fitch and Gymboree use child labor in their production process, by not condemning it they are still enabling the practice to continue. Please write to them today and ask that they condemn this cruel and unnatural practice, and that they commit to help eliminate the practice altogether—in Uzbekistan as well as the rest of the world. Their support is integral in creating a just world where people can make a living—and children can grow up having actual childhoods.