and the non-profit it engendered. My prediction at the time this came together was that any kid who put this together at 15 year old was destined to become a great leader in Canada.
That morning, Craig flipped through the Toronto Star in search of the comics, he was struck by a story. A raw, but courageous story of a boy his age named Iqbal.
Iqbal Masih was born in South Asia and sold into slavery at the age of four. In his short life, he had spent six years chained to a carpet-weaving loom. Iqbal captured the world’s attention by speaking out for children’s rights.
http://www.freethechildren.com/about-us/our-story/
The quick version: Kielburger is a kid and he starts going around to colleges with this issue and they push back. College students tell him in effect 'I'm with you on this issue but what the heck do you really know about child labor in other countries.' Kielburger's dangerously headstrong answer is what makes his story great -- he goes on a tour of the worst places in the world for child labor. He is like 16 YO and he describes meeting the head of UNIFCEF in India after walking over dead bodies in the street. He is appalled that the guy's office is a 'tennis court sized room with a marble floor' (!) He goes to the belly of the beast -- a factory where kids stuff fireworks by hand, a factory where kids lose their hands if their timing is wrong on a machine that stamps out cheap metal ashtrays.
He is still at it 20 years later.
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