While countless numbers of Canada's children are being shuffled to soccer and dance classes or playing video games with their friends, there are kids out there who aren't so fortunate - kids who are forced into lives of slavery, sometimes sex and often plenty of hardship. It can be easy to turn a blind eye when you're not personally affected, but for two young Canadian men that's just not an option.
At the tender age of 12 Craig Kielburger knew he wanted to make a difference. Flipping through the Toronto Star in search for comics one day, he was struck by a story. A raw, but courageous story of a boy who was born in South Asia and sold into slavery at the age of four. In his short life, the boy, who is no longer amongst us, had spent six years chained to a carpet-weaving loom. He then proceeded to capture the world's attention by speaking out for children's rights.
Inspired, 12-year-old Kielburger gathered 11 school friends together to form "Free the Children" and take on the fight against child labour. Today, 15 years later, Free The Children (freethechildren.com) is the world's largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million young people involved in programs in 45 countries.
To date and now partnered with his brother, Kielburger has helped to build more than 650 schools around the world. The ultimate goal being, to free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the idea that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world. Through empowerment programs and leadership training, Free The Children inspires young people to "develop as socially conscious global citizens and become agents of change for their peers around the world."
The children are our future and Kielburger's plan to empower them to create change makes great sense. From one boy's story of courage to an entire global movement, Kielburger is showing the world that children have the power to change the globe.
"We so often feel powerless to do anything about the many problems in the world around us. We are so often left to wonder whether one person can possibly make a difference. Mother Teresa said yes we can. Her life was resounding proof that it is possible." - Craig Kielburger.
