On Wednesday March 27, 2013, some 15,000 middle and
high school students from around the state of Washington are expected to
converge upon Key Arena in Seattle to celebrate We Day. The students who are
attending share one thing in common – they have committed to work on at least
one globally-based service project and one project focused on a local
problem.
This event is sponsored by Craig Kielburger,
co-founder of Free the Children, and represents the twenty-fourth gathering and
the first to be held outside Canada, the home of the organization. Kielburger now thirty years old has been an
activist for the causes of world peace and social justice since a young boy of
twelve. His story is exceptional and a
brief description of his early life follows.
Craig Kielburger was born on December 17, 1982. He gained some notoriety as an activist for
the rights of children around the world.
He is the founder of an organization called, Free the Children and Me to
We. Kielburger comes from Thornhill,
Ontario, Canada. At twelve years of age,
he happened to come upon an article about the senseless murder of a young boy
named Iqbal Masih. This story was to
launch Kielburger on a personal quest that would irrevocably change his life.
Iqbal Masih was a freed child laborer from Pakistan. He had won the Reebok Youth in Action Award on
account of his courageous decision to speak out against and in expose child
labor abuses in his native country. He
came to the United States to receive this honor. This child’s story is representative of the
horrors so many children face in South Asia.
His parents had taken out a loan amounting to 600 rupees (equivalent to
12 USD) from an unscrupulous lender - who was the owner of a carpet factory -
in order to pay for the wedding of their eldest son. As repayment for this loan, Masih was forced
to join other children whose job it was to squat before looms in the owner’s
carpet factory tying miniscule knots in the products destined for world
markets. According to the nature of the
agreement made with the owner, Masih would be literally owned by the
manufacturer; until, the loan was fully paid off. The boy was, in a sense, human collateral for
this loan that in Western eyes would appear miniscule. The “owner” retained the right to “sell” the
boy to another factory owner. As a
consequence, Masih worked twelve hours a day and six days a week.
This horror does not end here. For it was within the factory owner’s right
to add on to the amount of the loan should the boy make mistakes and daily
charges were made for the boy’s bowl of rice.
In addition, severe physical punishment was applied to these young
children when mistakes were made; many of these hapless victims had scars on
their hands and feet as a result of this kind of abuse. Accidents were common as well given the long
hours and physical exhaustion that accompanied this kind of work.
By the time Masih was ten years old, he realized that
he would never be able to pay off the debt which now amounted to 13000
rupees. With the help of a human rights
organization that learned of his plight, Masih was able to escape and go on to
school where he did exceedingly well. He quickly learned to read and write and
became an eloquent advocate for the rights of child workers and eventually
campaigned on their behalf.
Masih’s personal dream was to become a lawyer and use
his profession to help free more children trapped in the same kind of bondage
that severely impacted his life. All his
aspirations were to end in tragedy, however, for on April 16, 1995, Masih was
assassinated in Pakistan while attempting to visit his uncle on bicycle with
two of his cousins; he was twelve years old at the time.
Kielburger clearly remembered reading about this tragic
event on April 19, 1995; this news had a profound effect upon him. He questioned his mother about the story; her
response was that he should go to the library and get more information. The library was of little help, but by the
time he returned home that day he remained extremely concerned about the tragic
story of that boy and the horrific injustice that it spoke of.
This harsh reality that he was suddenly exposed to
through something as innocuous as a newspaper article, seemed to light a fire
in his mind. As a result, he began
making telephone calls to organizations dedicated to such issues. Kielburger was to discover that all the
persons he talked to over this issue that impacted children were adults; he
found this very disturbing. This
apparent awakening in his awareness of the magnitude of this social inequity, Kielburger
describes in the following way, “I’m always fascinated by coincidences, how one
random event can come on the heels of another and together alter the whole
direction of a person’s life.”
Eventually, Kielburger would be introduced to Alam Rahman
from Bangladesh and shared his thoughts regarding child labor with him. Rahman encouraged him to pursue the issue
further. In short order, Kielburger had
organized students at his school and together they formed a group called, Free the Children with the goal of
raising both awareness regarding this issue and funds to help combat it.
Kielburger often wondered why it was that even as a
young boy he was so determined to be involved in such a large and important
issue as the abuses of child labor. His
Grandfather on his father’s side was a German immigrant who arrived in Canada
during the Great Depression (1929-1938).
His life and the life of his family were exceedingly difficult; they
worked exceedingly hard. In a similar
way, his mother’s parents had a tough life.
Kielburger felt that he was instilled since childhood with a strong work
ethic; his parents believed that anything was possible if one worked hard
enough to achieve it. His parents also
emphasized the importance of issues of peace and social justice. In addition, his older brother Marc had a
profound impact upon him and served as a model for him to emulate, for Marc was
concerned about environmental issues as a young boy and became an activist for
this cause.
The Free the Children organization began to grow, not
only on account of the indefatigable energy of the young Kielburger but also do
the upwelling of support his organization received from many of his peers. Many were shocked to learn that there were
over 250 million child workers across the globe, and that, in general, their
working conditions were abominable.
At the age of 12, Kielburger was invited to address
two thousand delegates who were attending the Ontario Federation of Labour
(OFL) regarding the work of Free the Children.
As a result of his presentation, the OFL agreed to pledge five thousand
dollars to his organization. This
initial donation, created the momentum for other groups to donate as well. Free the Children had truly taken off. It is still extant to this day –
freethechildren.com.
Kielburger’s real adventure began when his good
friend Rahman – mentioned above – decided to take a year off from his
university studies to travel through Asia and discover his ethnic roots. He asked Kielburger to accompany him. In this way, he suggested, Kielburger could
meet working children throughout the region.
It took some convincing to receive the approval his reluctant parents,
who were concerned about his safety.
Ultimately, they relented provided that some conditions were met to
ensure their son’s well-being.
After some negotiations, The United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) agreed to contact their offices in South Asia to see
if they could help. In addition, PLAN
International – a development agency – became involved; PLAN representatives
sought to find individuals in the countries on the travel itinerary who would
be willing to take care of Rahman and Kielburger.
When all these many conditions were met, the
ambitious trip actually materialized.
The two traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh, Bangkok Thailand, Calcutta,
India, Kathmandu, Nepal, Varanasi, New Delhi, India, Karachi and Islamabad,
Pakistan, Lahore and many other destinations.
In all these various and exotic locations, Kielburger witnessed
firsthand the extent of child labor and actually met with many children who
described their horrific experiences to him.
This remarkable and eventful journey had a definite impact on the young
boy’s life. As Kielburger describes it,
“Shortly after my return to Canada, a newspaper quoted me as saying, ‘I divide
my life into pre-Asia and post-Asia.’ I
still do. The trip had a profound effect
on me, one that changed my life forever.
I would spread the word about the suffering of all the children I
met. I would let the world know that we,
too, are part of the problem. I would
not fail them.”
This remarkable journey irrevocably transformed this
young boy’s life. The extreme nature of
the social injustice endured by children throughout the world that Kielburger
witnessed first-hand made him determined to draw the attention of people throughout
the world , especially the young, to the plight of these young victims and to
help make a change for the good.
