Imagine This: You’re a 12-year-old Canadian boy who is inspired by the life and death of a 12-year-old Pakistani boy named Igbal Masih who spoke out against child slavery. You want to carry on Igbal’s mission to end child slavery, but what can you do?

 Who: You’re Craig Kielburger, a 12-year-old Canadian boy

What: Free the Children

Where: Canada

When: You begin your campaign in 1995 at age 12.

This is the inspiring story of 12-year-old Craig Kielburger who was inspired by the life and death of 10-year-old Igbal Masih who was killed at age 12 as a result of his speaking out against child slavery.

At age 12 you read about Igbal Masih and his story changes your life forever. You see Iqbal as a hero for speaking out against child labor and child slavery, and you understand that a young person can indeed make a difference.

You set out to educate yourself about human rights and become so passionate about the issue that you end up traveling through South Asia to see the horrors for yourself. When you return home to Canada, you and a group of your friends found Kids Can Free The Children.

Believing that education is one of the best ways to fight child labor, your program links schools in developing countries with schools in North America, Europe, and industrialized countries around the world.

It’s the students themselves at these schools who work to find solutions which include collecting and distributing supplies for over 100,000 school and health kits (an additional 9000 kits, blankets, and warm clothes were recently shipped to help war-affected children in Afghanistan) and raising money and helping to build more than 300 rural schools (2000 school kits, desks and chairs, and 3000 text books were recently sent to Sierra Leone to help locals open their new school in Freetown).

As FTC grows, you travel the world, meeting with heads of state and Nobel Prize winners, receiving international awards, sharing your convictions with global leaders, and appearing on television shows like 60 Minutes and Oprah, which brings FTC recognition and support.

Today Free the Children has grown into the largest international network of children helping children, with more than 100,000 youth involved in 35 countries. The campaigns focus on child-labor issues, children and poverty, war-affected children, education, and children’s rights.

Thank you, Craig, for caring enough to make a difference!

Postscript: For more about Kids Can Free The Children

For More about: Craig Kielburger

 Something to Think about: What do you think about kids helping kids?

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

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