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Craig created Free The Children.
Craig read an article about a child worker who's name was Iqbal Masih. His parents sold him to a carpet factory owner for less than $16 when he was 4. For the next 6 years, he remained tied to a carpet- weaving loom most of the time, tying knots hour after hour. Later on, he escaped and became a human rights activist. He was 12 when he was shot. Craig brought the article to school, and with 11 other students, he started Free The Children which was made to stop child labor. It became a success. -
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Free The Children
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Craig Kielburger prepared to fly to Asia
Craig Kielburger continued to raise money and awareness for child labour and human rights. One of the main events of the summer was a garage sale hosted by FTC. Word spread, and items to sell started to pile up. FTC made a lot of money. A few weeks later, Alam, 24, was going to Asia to see his family. Craig longed to see the child laborers himself, and decided to go with him to travel across Asia. After weeks of getting ahold of Visas and human rights organizations, he was ready to go to Asia. -
Craig Kielburger arrived at Dhaka, Bangladesh
Craig went to Dhaka, Bangladesh. As soon as he got out of the airport, he saw the poverty and labour. Rickshaws and vendors were everywhere. "You want a hotel?" "Taxi, you want taxi?" Craig pushed his way through the crowd, and finally found Alam, who went early. They visited a branch of PLAN International who took him to a poor village. All the children were surprised seeing a white child. PLAN built a pump for the village. Craig learned about child labour with Alam. -
When they were at the Indian border Craig and Alam were told to return to Dhaka
Craig and Alam went from Dhaka to the Indian border by walking, bus, rickshaw and ferry. They got stopped by an official at the other side of the river because they had no change-of-route pass. Craig and Alam had no idea what that was. Because they arrived at Bangladesh by air, if they were not to leave Bangladesh by air, they were to have a change-of-route pass which were in Bangkok. So they went to the Thai airline and bought a boarding ticket there. -
Craig and Alam arrived at Bangkok, Thailand.
Craig and Alam went to Bangkok, Thailand, where beautiful temples were everywhere. Of course, The astonishing city had another side to it. At the edge of Patpong there was so-called "sex-trade." With a local Australian named Mick in the lead, they learned about "sex-traders." Because Craig was only 12, he was told to return to Ian and Sue's, while Alam and Mick went to a club to investigate further. At that club, children were treated as slaves. Thai people loved birds, so children sold them. -
Craig and Alam went to Calcutta, India
With palm trees instead of holly and mistletoes, the Christmas Craig spent at Calcutta was one that he would not forget. Craig Kielburger and Alam arrived in Calcutta to lots of people in a tiny airport. For dinner, Craig had chapattis, rice, dhal and mutton curry. Craig attended a protest march in Calcutta to stand against chilld labour. They were given signs. After the march ended, a group of kids gathered around the thrown out signs and seperated the wood and the cardboard for money. -
Craig and Alam arrived at Kathmandu, Tibet.
Craig and Alam went to Kathmandu, Tibet. They visited a few centres created by CWIN where street kids could turn to for help. Most of them had the same basic floor plan. They had a kitchen, bedrooms and washrooms with showers. There was also a sick room. They had to build that because if the children went to a hospital, they would ignore them, because the kids had no money. Most of them only earned 1-2 US dollars a day before they lived there. Often it would get stolen by bigger kids -
Craig and Alam arrived at Varanasi, India
Craig and Alam prepared to attend a secret raid to free children workers in a carpet factory. And when they arrived at Varanasi, that's excactly what they did. They sneaked into the factory and brought the children out. Those children all lived in the same village, and one by one, they were released back into their families. -
Craig and Alam arrived at Delhi, India
While Craig and Alam was at Delhi, they played badminton and volleyball with a bunch of kids at a rehabilitation centre called Mukti Ashram built for freed child labourers. Craig also met a 14 year old child whose name was Nagashir. He used to work in a carpet factory, just like Iqbal. Craig also read his "JOINT DECLARATION BETWEEN THE YOUTH OF INDIA AND CANADA" asking the countries eliminate buying items from factories that use child labour... -
Craig and Alam went to Karachi and Islambad, Pakistan.
Craig met with Mr. Chrétien at , the prime minister of Canada (at the time) to talk about child labour, while he was on his South Asia business trip. -
Craig and Alam went to Lahore, Pakistan.
Craig longed to go to Lahore meet Iqbal's family members, to see his grave and to visit the place he had lived. He saw Iqbal's hometown and talked to his mother. They went to St. Francis Church to see Iqbal's birth certificate, it said that he was born in 1976, which meant that he was 19 years old when he was killed. But X-rays said that Iqbal was 12 when he was killed. Iqbal was Christian -
Craig an Alam went to Madras, India.
Craig and Alam saw some boys that decided to be their tour guides. They showed them child slaves, factory workers that were as small as 8. They saw a girl that put candy in bags who worked 11 hours a day. They also saw a girl that picked up syringes from the garbage and separate the parts to put in bins. She wasn't worried about any diseases she might've gotten. -
Craig and Alam went to Sivakasi, India
Craig and Alam went to Sivakasi to check out the fireworks factories there. They learned that there was only buckets to save any fires, and Craig saw that the buckets were dried up. -
Craig and Alam went to Cochin and Bombay, India
Craig went to Cochin and Bombay. It was Craig's last stop before returning to Canada. They saw child labour there. When they were shopping at a market, they saw a boy who was selling a drum whose name was Shakif. He was 13. Craig and Alam brought him to dinner with them. The kid was poor. He ordered lots of expensive food, not willing to let go of that good chance of filling his stomach. -
Craig returned to Canada.
When Craig returned to Canada, reporters crowded around him to ask questions. The media was there, waiting for him, just like he expected it to be. His family was waiting for him too.
