Free the Children

Free the Children
Motto	children helping children
Formation	1995
Type	non-profit organization
Headquarters	Toronto, Canada
Founder	Craig Kielburger
Key people	Marc Kielburger
Website	www.freethechildren.com

Free The Children is an international charity and youth movement founded in 1995 by children's rights advocate Craig Kielburger. The organization is largely youth-funded, based on the concept of "children helping children." It specializes in sustainable development in countries of Kenya, Ecuador, India, Nicaragua, Arizona-Mexico, and China, empowering youth in developed countries to become socially engaged.

History

Craig Kielburger, age 12, on his first trip to South Asia

Free The Children was founded in 1995 by Craig Kielburger when he was 12 years old. Kielburger was reading through the Toronto Star newspaper before school one day when he came across an article about the murder of 12-year-old Pakistani factory worker Iqbal Masih who had spoken out against child labour.

Soon after, Kielburger established Free The Children with a group of his 12-year-old classmates. The organization was formed to expose child labour to North Americans and encourage other children to get involved in the issue. In an attempt to learn more about child labour, he then travelled to South Asia to meet child labourers and hear their stories first-hand. It was on that trip in 1995 that Kielburger captured the attention of the media (in Canada and, to a lesser extent, the United States) when he secured an impromptu meeting with then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who was visiting Southeast Asia for a trade delegation. Kielburger attempted to persuade Chrétien to bring the subject of international child labour onto the Canadian Government's radar.

After returning home to Canada, Kielburger and his friends at Free The Children began taking on fundraisers and petitions in order to help fight child labour. Along with his older brother Marc, Kielburger grew the organization into a registered charity.

In 1999, at the age of 16, Craig Kielburger authored Free the Children, a book detailing his journey to South Asia four years earlier and the founding of his charity. The book was re-released in 2007 with Me to We Books.

In the years since its founding, Free The Children has focused its efforts less on eradicating child labour, and more on eradicating the barriers to children's education in the developing world. According to the organization's website, their goals are to "Free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the notion that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world." Today, they have built more than 650 schools and school rooms in developing regions worldwide. Free The Children has established offices in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, London, England, and Palo Alto, California .

Development work

Free The Children currently implements its Adopt a Village development model in rural communities in seven countries: China, Nicaragua, Kenya, Sierra Leone, India, Haiti and Ecuador. Adopt a Village is made up of four components: education, health care, alternative income, and clean water and sanitation. Among other projects, Adopt a Village builds schools and water wells, and provides medical treatment and alternative income sources to people in developing regions. These projects are designed to address the root causes of poverty and remove the barriers to children’s education in the developing world.

In 2008, Free The Children celebrated the construction of its 500th school. In 2010, the organization updated its website to show that it has now built 650 schools and school rooms which educate 55,000 children a day.

Youth Empowerment Work

Free The Children also partners with schools and families in developed countries “to educate, engage and empower young people as agents of change.” It does so through a team of Youth Programming Coordinators providing mentorship and resources to school and community youth groups; through the production of Weekly Curriculum Resources for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms; and by providing training to educators on engaging students in social justice. Free the Children has also teamed up with Me to We, their partner organization, to offer international volunteer trips for youth. Through school or youth groups they can travel overseas to take part first-hand in development projects, for which they have fund-raised. Participants build leadership skills and learn about global development and social issues. These experiences can take place in rural communities of Arizona-Mexico, Kenya, Ecuador, China and India. Youth "return with new perspectives and more energy than ever before to get their family and friends involved in raising awareness and funds for overseas development projects through Free The Children."

Local initiatives include: motivational speaking tours and workshops on topics such as volunteerism, active lifestyles and healthy eating and bullying; summer leadership camps; the GO Local program, which works with underserved middle and high schools to engage students in local issues; the Local Spotlight on Aboriginal education in partnership with the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative; and the We Schools in Action program, launched annually by We Day.

We Day

Main article: We Day

Free The Children founders Craig and Marc Kielburger at We Day 2008

Funding

Free The Children’s funding comes largely from young people. In classrooms and youth groups across North America, young people fundraise for Adopt a Village with independent fundraising campaigns or Free The Children’s organized campaigns. A portion of Free The Children’s funding also comes from independent adult supporters, grants and corporate groups. A final portion of the organization’s funding comes from the social enterprise Me to We, a for-profit organization with a social mission: to donate half of its net profits to Free The Children and to provide consumers with socially conscious products and experiences. The Me to We website lists its cash and in-kind contributions to Free The Children at over one million dollars annually.

Partners and Ambassadors

• Former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative
• Actress Nina Dobrev
• Actress Natalie Portman and the Power of a Girl
• Singer Nelly Furtado
• eTalk hosts Tanya Kim and Ben Mulroney
• Media personality Jesse Giddings
• Media personality Jessi Cruickshank
• Musician Jacob Hoggard of Hedley, Shawn Desman, The Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, Down With Webster
• Actors Charlotte Arnold, Raymond Ablack, Munro Chambers, and Sam Earle of Degrassi
• Holly Branson

External links

• Free The Children website
• Me to We website
• Me to We: Responsible Style
• Craig and Marc Kielburger interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos