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Craig Kielburger sees the picture that Iqbal Masih was killed
Craig Kielburger was inspired to end child labor by Iqbal Masih. Iqbal, a slave, was speaking out against child labor in Pakistan. He had been forced to work in order to pay off a debt his father owed. In 1993, Iqbal escaped, and began giving out speeches against child labor. But on April 16, 1995, Iqbal was shot.Thousands of miles away, a young boy called Craig Kielburger was looking through the newspaper for comics when the death of Iqbal caught his eye. -
Craig gathers school friends to discuss Iqbal's death.
. He was outraged, and started studying child labor. Kielburger gathered a group of his 7th grade school friends together, initially for "pop and pizza" to discuss the article he saw. Kielburger called this group "The Twelve Twelve Year Olds". Eventually, they evolved into Free The Children, the charity group that Kielburger is known for. -
Kielburger's group of friends begin doing small things to help the enslaved children.
They started by doing small things, such as signing petitions The Twelve Twelve yearand faxing world leaders. They started funding their cause by garage sales, soda sales, car washes, and bake sales, all run by the Twelve Twelve year olds. At the age of fourteen, Craig went to the back alleys, sweatshops, and poor streets of South Asia, and found the enslaved children there. Some of them were doing jobs that would most likely get them sick, but they would receive no treatment. -
Kielburger hears the Prime Minister of Canada is in Thailand
In the middle of his trip to Thailand, he heard that the prime minister of Canada was in Asia due to trade delegations. He tried to arrange a meeting with her, but was denied. He then afterwards said "Forget being the prime minister, it’s his moral responsibility to do this.” in front of a news reporter. -
Craig meets the Prime Minister of Canada
When calling home the next day, Craig discovered that his name was on every news headline in Canada. Finally, the Prime Minister arranged a meeting with Kielburger, and when the media heard of his story, they loved it. -
After Kielburger came out of the meeting with the Prime Minister, he and Free The Children recieved fame.
From then on, Craig gained enough money to help children across the globe, and from there, it escalated, and is still escalating now.