How to Raise a Kid Who Cares
The popular story about accomplished child rights activist Craig Kielburger is that he was provoked to action by the story of Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani boy murdered for speaking out against child labour.
While that shocking story was the catalyst for Kielburger’s Free the Children foundation, it was actually a much smaller, less publicized event a few months earlier that gave him the confidence to believe he could change the world.
Kielburger, 12 years old at the time, organized his friends to save the local library from closing. “One day there was a sign that said it was going to be closed and there was a meeting taking place,” he says. “I went to my parents all upset. My parents kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, do something about it.’”
the inspiration
Kielburger says parents often ask him how to ignite that same kind of social concern and passion in their children.
“A lot of people think there’s a giant catalyst spark; it has to be an article or one thing. In fact, it’s a lot of small things that can add up to finding a cause,” he says.
Kielburger says children can be inspired by a single event or image outside of themselves, such as famine in Africa, or they’re moved to action by something thrust upon them—usually negative—such as illness or the loss of a loved one.
Jake Shtern, 11, of Montreal is one of those kids. He was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago and spent 130 weeks receiving chemotherapy and other treatments at the hospital. Saddened by the number of children he saw who had nothing to distract them from the needles and surgeries, Jake told his mother, Nathalie, he wanted to raise money to buy toys, electronic games and movies for the hospital. As a result of a fun fair held in 2003 at a local park, they raised $18,000. Today, The Comfy Cozy Fund has raised more than half a million dollars thanks to community, media and corporate support.
“It taught me how I could give and help other kids—and how kids can make a difference in other kids’ lives,” says Jake.
it starts at home
For many children, their activist passions develop because their families are socially engaged. “When I was a kid and we would go downtown (in Toronto), we would pass people who were homeless and panhandling,” says Kielburger. “My mom would walk up to them and ask them their names when she was handing them a few coins,” he says. “I used to think she was doing it to be nice to these people, and I realized only later she was doing it so I would stop and hear that they had a name and to acknowledge their humanity.”
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