What Has FTC Accomplished




	Achievements

	Over a period of four years, Free the Children has grown into an international children�s organization active n more than 20 countries. Over 100,000 children have participated in Free the Children campaigns and activities. *Projects* Free the Children has initiated a "Friendship Schools Campaign". To date, students have raised funds to construct 20 schools in Latin America. They have put together and shipped more than 5000 school kits to South Africa, the Phillipines , Latin America and India. Their Millenium Challenge is to build 100 schools and to ship 100,000 school kits to children by the year 2001. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and eliminating child labor. Young people from FTC have raised money to set up a piping and reservoir system to bring clean water from the mountains into two villages in Waslala, Nicaragua and to build one medical clinic. They have shipped over $200,000 of medical supplies to the area. FTC raised over $100,000 for the construction of a live-in rehabilitation / education center for freed bonded child laborers in Alwar, India. The center, which accommodates up to 100 children at any given time, provides counseling, education, medical aid and vocational training and thereby facilitates the reintegration of these children into society. The rehabilitation center was completed in the fall of 1998 and is operated by the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS). During the KOSOVO crisis, students in over 100 schools put together 10,000 kits of health care and hygiene items, 8000 stuffed animals, 2000 baby kits, 50,000 items of clothes and thousands of other items for the Balkan refugees. The health kits and other necessities were distributed to children in camps in KOSOVO, Belgrade and North America. Often children are forced to work to help their families survive. Free the Children is supporting an alternative income program for families in two rural areas of Tamil Nadu, India, to help children leave work in gem cutting and go to school. FTC young people have bought cows, sewing machines and small machinery for families and have helped support primary schools in two villages. Free the Children has also bought arable land and farming equipment for 15 fatherless families in Nicaragua to set up a coffee cooperative to help women improve their socio-economic status and to grow their own food. This will help children can leave hazardous places of work and the streets where they work and go to school. Free the Children, India, is working with CARD, a grass roots organization in India to support 63 primary schools. They are currently building a Rescue home for children who have been kidnapped and used as camel jockey, beggars and drug carriers to Persian Gulf countries. (Need urgent help with this project) Free the Children, Brazil, convinced a group of teachers to volunteer their free time to teach basic literacy skills to children working in sugar cane fields and sisal plantations in rural areas. They organized a campaign to gather books, school supplies, desks and other equipment to help set up learning centers for children in rural areas. FTC Mexico organized a festival for 500 street children providing health kits, and video / movie presentation on safety, basic health and First AID. Street and working children were also given the opportunity to express themselves through the arts, including theater, music, painting, and arts and crafts. The children were given food, and information on where to obtain help. FTC Japan bought a bus for Preda Center which helps children rescued from the sex trade in the Philippines. Representative Action: FTC India helped to gather evidence of the trafficking of children, for use as camel jockeys and drug carriers, to the Middle East. Presentations were made before various levels of government and courts. As a result, the President of India pledged to send a representative to Saudi Arabia to negotiate the release of the enslaved children. Mexican children and Craig Kielburger met with the Chief of Police of Mexico City and other department heads to persuade them to permit street children to speak at police training sessions to inspire greater sympathy for their plight. In addition, they met with the Mexican Minister responsible for youth affairs and lobbied for a legal amendment to make child pornography and child abuse criminal offences. In their meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, representatives of FTC Canada persuaded the Canadian government to introduce legislation so that Canadians who travel abroad to sexually molest young children are punishable under the Canadian Criminal Code. Similar action was taken in Italy when a representative of FTC met with members of the Green Party who introduced the motion in the Italian parliament. These actions were taken in an effort to combat "sex tourism" in countries such as Thailand, where young boys and girls are frequently forced into prostitution. Children as young as six and seven years of age are hired by foreign clients and sexually exploited. Carpet Weaving Action - FTC Germany is actively promoting the �Rugmark� label (child labor free carpets) and encouraging consumers in Germany to consciously purchase products free of child labor. They constructed a loom, and set up displays in public places in order to have people attempt to weave a portion of a carpet so that they would realize first hand the difficulty and strain forced on many small children. FTC Germany met with the mayor of Munich to gain support for their campaign calling for the importation of carpets which are child labor free. Young people from Free the Children Brazil met with government officials and the wife of the President regarding children�s issues. In 1998, they helped to convinced the Brazilian government to spend an additional one million dollars on programs and projects, which help child laborers in their country. Child Pornography Petition - FTC Canada has commenced a petition campaign seeking to reverse the recent legalization of child pornography in British Columbia. FTC USA has launched a petition campaign to persuade the U.S. government to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United States and Somalia are the only two countries which have not ratified this Convention. FTC children in Mexico ( CONIM) organized a campaign, "Give us a Hand", to educate young people and to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. FTC is mobilizing children around the world in a letter writing campaign to have their governments ratify the new International Labor Organization Convention which bans the worst forms of child labor and punishes those who are responsible. International Spokespersons for Children Rights: Young people from Free the Children have become international spokespersons for children�s rights at government hearings, national conferences on business ethics, labor groups, international gatherings of educators, lawyers, judges, child care workers, to religious groups, and students from elementary to university levels. Groups to whom young people from Free the Children have spoken on children�s rights include: Congressional Hearings on Child Labor in Washington Government Hearings on Child Labor in Canada UNESCO Conference in Paris National Convention of 1000 Business Executives in India International Conference on Children Rights at St. Francis Xavier University in Chicago World Council of Churches International Meetings in Geneva and Zimbabwe Educational Conference for 2000 Superintendents and Directors of Education for the State of California International Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Conference State of the World Forum Young Presidents� Organization International University Conference in Hawaii. UNICEF Convention for Child Care Workers in Hong Kong AFL-CIO National Labor Convention USA Jubilee 2000 National Convention USA Awards: Free the Children young people in many local areas and countries have been recognized for their work through Free the Children. In May 1998, Free the Children was the recipients of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Institute Peace Medal in the Netherlands. The other recipients were Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and the current head of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations. The award presented to Craig and FTC, the Freedom from Fear Medal, was last given three years ago to Shimon Peres. Craig Kielburger was awarded a State of the World Forum Award in 1997 for his efforts to organize thousands of young people into a worldwide movement for children� rights. In 1996, Craig and FTC were awarded the Reebok Youth in Action award, Youth in Action for their activities to help stop exploitative child labor. FTC has since worked in cooperation with the company, which has pledged that all of its soccer balls would henceforth be child labor free Free the Children Toronto and Free the Children Quebec, Canada were presented with the YMCA Peace Award;