Toiling in sweatshops, orange groves, factories and other arduous workplaces are approximately 250 million child laborers worldwide, according to the International Labour Organization. However, thanks to the efforts of one teen-ager, at least 100,000 young people are working to help them.

They are the youth members of Free the Children, an international organization with a dual purpose: to end child exploitation, poverty and abuse, and to free children from the concept that kids can't make a difference.

Craig Kielburger, 18, is the founder of Free the Children, a nonprofit organization based in Toronto. What started as a club six years ago has grown into an international organization with members in 27 countries.

It all started one morning when the then-12-year-old was flipping through the newspaper for the comics. Instead, he was stopped by a front-page headline: Boy, 12, murdered .

Captivated by the story of Iqbal Masih, a boy his own age who was murdered for speaking out against child labor, Kielburger decided to do some research. After finding more information at the library, he presented his findings to his Grade 7 class and recruited classmates. Months later, the group came up with the name Free the Children before attending a youth rally.

"The first two years, we didn't build an organization," Kielburger explained. "The organization really just developed around us. People started calling us and wanting to support (us), and it started growing and growing and growing," he said.

One of the group's early boosts came from the Ontario Federation of Labor. After speaking for 15 minutes at its 1995 convention in Toronto, Kielburger raised $150,000.

In December of that year, he and a chaperone traveled to Southeast Asia to learn firsthand about child labor. "It was only after that," he said, "that other people started setting up chapters."

Free the Children also grew beyond the original focus on child labor. Its Web site, www.freethe children.com, highlights efforts in such areas as building and running rehabilitation centers and schools, making school health kits and supporting alternative-income projects. Members also speak in their communities to bring attention to these issues.

According to Kielburger, one of Free the Children's most effective campaigns is its effort to build schools.

Members will come up with ideas on how to raise funds and build the schools, often traveling to the location to help build them. "That's one of our most successful actions," he said, "because we have people in North America who now realize, 'Wow, we can bring about a change -- we can build a school.' "

Through the organization, members have built 250 schools worldwide, run three rehabilitation centers in India and have sent thousands of families through cooperatives designed to give them an alternative source of income. The cooperatives might buy land or sewing machines for families, which allow parents to work and send their children to school.

The group raises funds through efforts by its individual chapters as well as donations from individuals, organizations and corporations. When members travel to foreign countries, their trips are often paid for by the host country.

With 100,000 youth members, it can sometimes be difficult to coordinate activities. But as Free the Children has grown, so has its structure. Of the countries in which the group has chapters, seven are set up as charities. In each country, members under 18 vote on policies and activities, and an adult advisory board is established for mentors ages 18 to 30.

It hasn't always been easy. According to Kielburger, the hardest part of founding Free the Children was "getting adults to take us seriously." One early incident taught him the importance of research.

"I spoke to my brother's high school class and completely bombed. They had all of these questions; I didn't have the answers for them . . . and I was so frustrated I wanted to quit," he recalled. "But that one incident made me realize that knowledge is the key, and what I had to do was research all of their questions and come up with the answers. And if we wanted to really build an organization, we had to have all the information at our fingertips."

Research has since shown where child labor has been eliminated. Kielburger cites the southern state of Kerala in India. With less than 3 percent child labor, it stands in stark contrast to the rest of India, which has the most child laborers in the world -- 50 million.

"It's kind of one little island of hope, surrounded by other states where the kids live in desperate poverty," he said. "Often we hear, 'Oh, child labor, you know, it's part of economic growth and it'll go away in a hundred years,' or whatever else. It won't. It's something that's going to exist until we make a conscious effort to stop it."

In Kerala, Kielburger said, all children go to primary school, and 88 percent continue on to secondary education, a result of the state's investment in education, worker's rights and land reform.

Kielburger's teen years have been both typical and atypical. He attended prom and crammed for tests, but his alternative high school also allowed him to miss school for his Free the Children work.

He understands that high school is a frustrating experience for many teens. "When you go through high school, after being involved with issues, you have a slightly different perspective," he said, " 'cause you sit in class, and you listen to the teacher talk about these issues." It's frustrating, he explained, because despite all the talk, students aren't able to act.

Kielburger and other group members would like "to make high school more of a reality" for students. To that end, they are working with educators to help build volunteerism and social activism into school curriculums. Now that Kielburger is 18, he is finding that his role in Free the Children is changing to a mentoring one rather than a decision-making one. "I felt like I should go and retire, or get a gold watch and go out into the harsh, cruel world," he said.

He plans on taking a year off before college. During the next year, he hopes to help build the base of the organization, especially the U.S. base in Boston.

"The sky really is the limit," Kielburger said. "I look back and I can never imagine six years ago how far we would've come today. I can't imagine under the new team how far they're gonna carry it."

"I hope to see the organization more involved in issues affecting children in armed conflict," he continued. "I plan on studying IR (international relations) personally, but also studying peace and conference negotiations. I'd like to see Free the Children taking on that type of role, going out there with its members and taking a stand on conflicts, conflicts started by adults that often affect kids."

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Danielle Friedman, 18, and Tyler Smith, 14.

REPORTERS: Ben Hohman, 13, and Stephen Miller, 12.