Last week I was inspired by a group of people who are changing the world. These people are raising funds for the food banks on the Sunshine Coast and organizing community events like the Terry Fox Run. They are raising money to be sent overseas, to the less fortunate in Haiti and Kenya. They are making positive contributions to their communities and the world. And they are still in primary school.
Students at Langdale Elementary School are setting a great example about what it means to be good citizens and caring human beings. And their actions should help us understand that we can all contribute to making the world a better place.
The students participate in We Charity, a movement of social activism that has more than 2.4 million young people around the world doing their part to make the world better. Students across Canada, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean and the U.S. have raised more than $105 million for local and global organizations. In addition to the money, they have also raised more than 12 million pounds of food for local food banks and have volunteered more than 36 million hours.
The person who started We Charity is someone we’ve heard of before. Craig Kielburger got started as a global activist when he was 12 years old. As a kid growing up in Ontario, he started an organization called Free the Children, after reading about a child his own age in Pakistan who worked in a carpet-making factory and was murdered for talking about child labour. That organization morphed into the We Day international development model and now Kielburger has motivated thousands of young people to join him in social activism.
Social activism can and does take place every day in so many ways, and every community relies heavily on its citizens for myriad activities that make our world better. Our efforts don’t need to have global reach to have an impact and everyone can find ways to make the world be a better place.
Hats off to the Grade 6 class at Langdale Elementary and all the other students who participate in the We Charity. It’s great to see young people learning about the importance of being contributing members of society and gaining an understanding that even at 12 they can make a difference in the world.
“If you want to see change you have to take action, because without action, nothing is going to get done,” said Lyric Moysey-Ruben, Grade 6 student at Langdale Elementary. Wise words, Lyric; thanks for the inspiration.
