Child Activist Attracts Interest

When Craig Kielburger read about the death of 12-year-old Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani boy sold into a life of slavery and forced to weave carpets, who escaped at the age of 10 only to be killed two years later, he knew he had to do it.

All of twelve himself when he read about Masih in the papers, the Canadian boy, now all of 15, is something of a prodigy, and will be the youngest delegate at the 25th National Management Convention organised by the All India Management Association (AIMA), which begins in Calcutta today.

Moved by the fate which Masih met, Kielburger rallied his friends and set up the Free the Children organisation aimed at giving oppressed children a voice.

He also raises funds for children who are victims of abuse and exploitation with a view to making a difference in the lives of millions of children worldwide.

Kielburger is already a much-celebrated young man. He is the recipient of the Franklin D and Eleanor Roosevelt medal, the other recipients of which include Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In June this year, Kielburger was sworn in as the new ambassador of the Children's Embassy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and given the responsibility to speak on behalf of the children of war.

At the AIMA convention, he would be rubbing shoulders with the rich and the famous, but his presence will itself serve to keep the plight of the oppressed children firmly in focus even as endless debates take place on strategies for competitiveness. Kielburger is no stranger to conventions like these, having twice addressed Congressional committees in Washington and also the Foreign Policy Association in New York, apart from several other frontline global bodies.

Kielburger's example has galvanised several children across the world to set up their own Free the Children organisations, and in India, Kids Can Free the Children has raised $200,000 to build and staff a live-in rehabilitation cum education centre for upto 400 freed bonded child labourers a year from the carpet factories.