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April 19, 2000 Dear Fawad and Everyone at Sudhaar, Good news ! We just received the latest status "School for Iqbal" quarterly report from SUDHAAR, the non-governmental organization administering the Iqbal school. The report states the "School for Iqbal" and SUDHAAR are BOTH doing fine AND BOTH are growing THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY AND PRAYERS OF EACH AND EVERY SUPPORTER OF THE KIDS CAMPAIGN. The news of the successes in the Iqbal School and SUDHAAR brings pride and tears of happiness. We are so proud to be teammates with the wonderful people of SUDHAAR. Thank you, SUDHAAR, for your relentless efforts to celebrate children and provide for their education. Surprise Award from Pakistan for EVERYONE who has helped "A School for Iqbal" become a reality... In addition to the updates and quartely progress reports and programs we received April 19, 2000, from the Iqbal School, we were surprised to learn about an award ! An award has been inscribed to "The Student Campaign Leaders of Broad Meadows Middle School." We are so humbled, so happy, so surprised. Receiving an award from Pakistan is one of the most remarkable surprises we have ever received. The award is concrete proof of our partnership, our mutual love of children and our joint collaboration to help Pakistani youth to help themselves through education. The gift of education, once received, can never tarnish or be taken away. On behalf of the entire "School for Iqbal" campaign, we extend to SUDHAAR and especially to its founder,Fawad Usman Khan, our sincerest THANKS for the award. From half a world away, we have managed to unite online for children. What a blessing to be partners with SUDHAAR in all they do for children. Did you know ... ? ( The SUDHAAR selection : way back in April 1996 ) After the shock of the news of Iqbal's murder in April 1995, students here decided to take action to keep alive Iqbal's dream of freedom and education for all children. Students decided to establish a "School for Iqbal" in Pakistan. A campaign was born. In 1996 Broad Meadows Campaign Leaders chose SUDHAAR from the 12 non-governmental organizations which submitted proposals to establish "A School for Iqbal." Before the final selection was made by the students (teachers had no vote ), the student campaign leaders huddled in our most historic house of worship. Each student prayed for wisdom. Broad Meadows is a public school. Prayer is not allowed in a public school because the U.S. Constitution calls for separation of Church and State. However, in 1996, the student leaders decided to meet in our most historic church on a school holiday so students could pray. After the prayers, the students voted in a secret ballot. SUDHAAR won that election ! SUDHAAR was chosen to be the non-governmental organization to establish the "School for Iqbal" in Pakistan. So, here we are, years later, the "School for Iqbal" is a reality thanks to THOUSANDS of big hearted people like YOU ! We have never regretted our decision to trust that new, emerging Pakistani group known as SUDHAAR. In many ways SUDHAAR reminded the Broad Meadows students of themselves, small but growing, having new ideas, having a love of children and a willingness to unite local parents and businesses and government to grow sustainable support for the education of poor children.
What's happening in the U.S. to raise awareness ? Like SUDHAAR, we have grown, also. Here is a summary of the most recent efforts of the "School for Iqbal" student campaign leaders : April 8, 2000 : Freedom March 2000 in Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts during which Amanda Loos, co-founder of the "School for Iqbal" campaign, now 17 years of age , was one of the Honored Guest Speakers ( the march was organized by the American Anti-Slavery Group ) 500 people marched to end the buying and selling of children or adults. Iqbal was "sold" or "bonded" at age 4 out of the desperation of poverty details : http://www.anti-slavery.org/ or Click here: The American Anti-Slavery Group Freedom March 2000 April 21 - 30 : to attach poverty, the campaign leaders is helping to launch a "global service" project known as "Operation Day's Work- USA." The goal of the project is to attack poverty in poor, developing countries. Operation Day's Work is student run. Students choose one poor country each year to learn about AND to help. Students help by accepting from non-governmental organizations proposals for educational projects. The goal is for students to choose one educational project from those submitted. Students involved then raise funds to finance that proposal and make it a reality. The first year ( 1999) students in 8 schools in 6 states made up Operation Day's Work. They voted to help Haiti. They chose an educational "livestock and agriculture" project to fund. Students agreed to work ONE DAY for the project and to donate ALL the money raised on that ONE DAy to the project. The result was $31,000 raised and 500 Haitian children receiving livestock, seeds for planting and literacy, gifts that will last for years and years to come. That's the point, youth here helping other youth to help themselves. This ( year 2000 ) is the second year. Now, 31 schools in 14 states belong to Operation Day's Work- USA. Students this year chose to help El Salvador. Students will be "doing their DAY's Work " for children in El Salvador in the next weeks. The project is sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ) in Washington, DC. details : http://www.odw.info.usaid.gov March 26 : This campaign was Honored by the city of Quincy, Massachusetts. Ceremonies were attended by the Honorable William Delahunt, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives. He spoke very highly of the "School for Iqbal" campaign. March 8 : student campaign leaders taught a class on child labor to 7th grade students from the Jewish Sunday School Studies Program at Pine Manor College March 6 : The campaign received a national award from The Peace Corps at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. The Director of the Preace Corps, Mark Schneider, presented the award to the student campaign leaders. March 3 : student campaign leader Deirdre Faherty, 14, testifies before a Congressional Subcommittee in Washington, DC Feb. 17 : campaign summary presentation at University of Massachusetts Jan 16 : student campaign leaders are keynote speakers at the City of Quincy's Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast. the Mayor of Quincy praises the campaign. December 1999 President Clinton signs into U.S. law the I.L.O. Child Labor Standards to End Immediately the Most Abusive Forms of Child Labor ( Child Bonded Labor, Child Prostitution, Life threatening or psychologically threatening work, etc. ) The students and others in this campaign have been lobbying the U.S. Senate by letter for 18 months to RATIFY the ILO Standards into U.S. law. In December, the Senate did it and so did President Clinton ! Whew ! Republican Senator Jesse Helms and Democratic Senator Harkin both agree that the THOUSANDS of letters sent by members of this campaign to the U.S. Senate "made a difference," when it came time for the Senate to vote. details : Click here Global March Against Child Labor Dec. 1999 A national award ( UAHC Bearer of Light Award ) is presented in recognition of the campaign in Orlando, FL Nov. 4 1999 Student campaign leaders co-write, co-direct, co-produce and co-host a live TV show on child labor ( Part II ) "The Global Sweatshop" Special guests on this show are U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Ted Kennedy details : Click here: A School for Iqbal Update or Click here: Global Sweatshop TV programs Oct. 26 : Student campaign leaders co-write, co-direct, co-produce and co-host a live TV show on child labor ( Part I ) "The Global Sweatshop" Special interviews include UNICEF Director Carol Bellamy and Women's U.S. World Cup Soccer team co-captain Julie Foudy.
We have been very busy. Thank you ALL for making this grassroots campaign a
growing campaign ! "Slain 13-year-old Pakistani activist wins first World's Children's Prize"
KIM GAMEL, (04-07) 13:35 PDT STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- A slain Pakistani boy who rose from virtual slavery at a carpet factory to become a symbol of the fight against child labor was named Friday as the winner of the first World's Children's prize. The non-governmental Swedish rights organization Children's World also honored Anne Frank and anti-apartheid activist Hector Peterson, saying ``perhaps their names are the only ones of the 20th century's billions of suffering children which the world still remembers.'' Sweden's Queen Silvia will award the $81,000 prize money to relatives of the honorees Thursday at a ceremony at Gripsholms Castle in Mariefred, 30 miles west of the capital, Stockholm. The winner, Iqbal Masih, was forced from the age of 5 to work in a carpet factory after his mother had borrowed from the factory's owner to cover the cost of an operation, according to a news release announcing the prize winners. He escaped at 10, received help from activists, and was enlisted to speak to child-labor conferences in the United States and Sweden. At 13, he was gunned down in Pakistan. There has been much speculation about Iqbal's slaying but most activists believe it was a contract killing to stop him from speaking against carpet manufacturers. About $69,500 will be used to establish the Iqbal Masih's Freedom Center for the Rights of the Child in Pakistan, which among other things will finance the creation of a high school for child laborers. ``Iqbal wanted to be a lawyer so that he could work to free other debt-slave children,'' his 15-year-old sister Sobia, who will accept Iqbal's prize, was quoted as saying. In honor of his accomplishments, the prize will be renamed the Iqbal Masih Award for the Rights of the Child. Anne Frank's cousin Buddy Elias will accept $5,000 for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where the teen-age girl hid from the Nazis and wrote her world-famous diary, which chronicles her family's failed attempt to escape the Holocaust. Antoinette Sithole, the sister of Peterson, who was shot to death at 12 by South African police at a protest against apartheid in Soweto, will accept a similar award that ``will be used by the family because they're having such a hard time,'' Magnus Bergmar of Children's World said. A committee from the organization named the first honorees, In the future, children in schools around the world will nominate candidates and the winners will be chosen by a panel of 15 children who had suffered as laborers, refugees, soldiers or in other ways. On the Net: Children's World's English-language site: http://www.childrensworld.org/ENGINDEX.ASP The above updates are from :
The Kids Campaign : A School for Iqbal |
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Broadmeadows Middle School