Free The Children
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children with more than one million youth involved in their fundraising and education programs. It is almost entirely run by children, as the organization has an advisory board of adults, but the youth are still involved at all levels of the decision making. Free The Children is an international charity in more than 45 countries. Free The Children was founded by the child rights activist Craig Kielburger at the age of 12. He was reading a newspaper and learnt about the murder of Iqbal Masih. Shocked from reading it, he decided to do something about it. The charity addresses the causes of poverty and exploitation of children.
Through youth voice and actions of young people, Free The Children has built 400 schools which provide education to 35,000 children daily, has shipped 200,000 school and health kits to children in need and has directly provided heath care services to more than 500,000 people in 40 countries by building health care centres and distributing essential medical supplies. Free The Children has partnered with the United Nations, Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network, and Bishop Desmond Tutu, and has also been covered by CNN, 60 Minutes, The New York Times, The London Herald, Time Magazine, and the Economist.
Free The Children is part of the Kiel Network, founded by two brothers: Marc and Craig Kielburger. The Kiel Network is a trio of worldwide organizations comprised of Free The Children, Me to We, and Leaders Today. The organizations of the Kiel Network act together to empower and engage young people and adults to effect positive social change in the world through education, leadership, and action.
