Craig and Marc Kielburger – Freeing the World’s Children
There are very few 12 year olds who have changed the world for the better.
There are very few we know of who have even tried.
At 12 years of age, comfortable in his middle class, grade 6 life outside Toronto, Craig Kielburger had no plans to change the world.
But while looking through the newspaper for the comics section one ordinary day in 1995, he came across a small newspaper article about the murder of a young boy in Pakistan. Although he and this unfortunate child were the same age, their lives could not have been more different.
Craig’s biggest worries were what to ask for at Christmas, and how well he would do in Geography.
The Pakistani boy, on the other hand, had been a slave since he was 4 years old, working 12 and 14 hour days in a carpet factory. His name was Iqbal Masik. When at last he was freed by the police, he had tried to bring child slavery into the public eye by speaking with journalists and agitating for change. As a result he had been murdered, his young life brought to a violent end.
The story changed Craig’s life. He was shocked to find that such an abomination as child slavery could still exist in his world.
He discovered that there were thousands of children like Iqbal, kidnapped and enslaved to work in factories and sweatshops… beaten, starved, living behind barbed wire fences and cement block walls, with no future, no education, and little chance for happiness.
And young Craig decided that he had to do something about it…even if nobody thought a 12-year old had any chance of making a difference.
His parents had always taught him and his brother Marc that all goals worth achieving come with challenges. “Go for it!” they had said. “The only failure in life is not trying.”
So he spoke out, to anyone who would listen. He convinced his friends and classmates to join him, starting an organization called Free The Children. No one on the organization’s original Board of Directors was older than 18. They raised money through garage sales, car washes, and bake sales…all run by children. They signed petitions and faxed world leaders, including their own Canadian prime minister.
Today, over 12 years later, Free the Children boasts over 100,000 members in 35 countries. The organization’s aim is simple, yet profoundly human: to eradicate child slave labor around the world.
In the past dozen years, Craig has traveled the world talking to children who are forced to live and work in desperately poor conditions. He’s seen things which most teenagers don’t even read about.
He’s spoken with children in India who worked 12 hours a day in a brick kiln and never had the chance to attend school. He’s visited with an eight-year-old girl whose job was to sort through used needles from hospitals that treated drug addicts and AIDS patients. In the Philippines, he met an eight-year-old boy who had never set foot outside the trash dump where he was born. He has accompanied police on raids to free children in a factory, and he’s been present when those children were returned to their families.
And the more he has heard, the more determined he has become to tell their stories to the world.
He has taken his crusade for children's rights to Prime Ministers and queens, Mother Teresa and the Pope. His first book, Free The Children, written when he was only 16, won the prestigious Christopher Award and has since been translated into eight languages.
You’d think this would be a movement that no-one could possibly oppose.
Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.
Craig faced attacks from many quarters.
Some people said that a 14-year old had no place telling adults and politicians, (much less entire countries), what they should and shouldn't do. When he brought up the topic of children who were being enslaved as prostitutes, he was told that this wasn’t a fit subject for someone so young to discuss.
But Craig refused to be silenced.
Within two years of its founding, Free the Children had raised enough money to help fund a rehabilitation center for Pakistani youngsters who had escaped slavery. As a result of their work, Germany adopted a tag called "Rugmark," to signify carpets made without any exploitation of children. And a coalition of major US sporting goods manufacturers pledged not to buy soccer balls which had been stitched by children in foreign factories.
Craig has received many awards for his work… and Free the Children’s accomplishments have earned the organization three Nobel Peace Prize nominations.
Oprah Winfrey was so moved by his book…and supportive of his cause… that she has had Craig as a guest on her show several times. And her “Angel Network” has teamed up with Free the Children to help them accomplish even more.
To date, Free the Children volunteers and funds have built over 500 primary schools in other countries… providing education to over 35,000 children around the world, every day.
That’s a pretty awesome record for a club started by a 12 year old!
If Free the Children were Craig’s only accomplishment, he would be a very impressive young man. But in fact, it was only the beginning.
In 1999, in response to numerous requests from young Free the Children members who wanted to make a difference, but didn’t know where to start, Craig and his brother Marc co-founded a new organization called Leaders Today. Its purpose is to teach leadership skills to children, and empower them to fight for their rights.
Offering both local and international training experiences, the organization reaches more than 350,000 youth every year. It inspires and empowers young people with the truth they already know in their hearts: that youth can achieve great things—today, not tomorrow.
They have also continued to write and publish books about the necessity for social action and volunteerism. Their most recent volume, Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World, inspires people of all ages to focus on what they can do to help others. It is a rallying cry against the self-absorbed culture of the so-called “self help” movement.
Craig has become a sought-after speaker and has shared the podium with such world-renowned leaders as Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Queen Noor, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
Yet at the beginning, he was simply a 12 year old kid who saw a great injustice and refused to accept what others told him… that he was too young and inexperienced to do anything about it.
He has shown the world a simple truth: that no one is too young – or too old - to make a difference.
