A SCHOOL FOR IQBAL

page 12 October 13, 2003

Award Honors Student Activists
By SUE SCHEIBLE
The Patriot Ledger

QUINCY - Amy Papile was 12, loved to play soccer, eat pizza, go to school and was "into theater.'' Then she met another 12-year-old, a boy who changed her world. He was Iqbal Masih, and he was a child bonded laborer in the sweat shops of Pakistan,'' Papile recalled yesterday. Now a young woman, she spoke at the Adams National Historic Park as part of the day-long program John Quincy Adams and the Amistad Event.''

Papile told how Iqbal was murdered at age 12 while riding his bike in his neighborhood because he led an international crusade to end child labor. "Somebody thought they could silence his message by silencing him, but they were wrong, very wrong,'' she said.

His message was picked up that year, 1994, by school children including Papile at the Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy. Working with their teacher, Ron Adams, and Principal Anne Zukauskas, she said, "We turned our anger into activism and vowed to keep Iqbal's dream of every child having an education.'' The Broad Meadows students raised money for a school in Iqbal's memory in Pakistan, which opened in 1996, and went on to raise a total of $147,000 to build more schools.

The campaign branched out to other schools and is now 10 years old. The Adams program yesterday honored Broad Meadows and three other schools - Quincy High School, North Quincy High School and Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree - for "giving voice to the voiceless.'' The schools each received the "Voices of Justice Award'' recognizing all the student volunteers who have participated, said Caroline Keinath, deputy superintendent of the Adams Park. "We know that children can make a difference,'' Papile said, one of two students who spoke on behalf of the others.

Since the first outreach in 1996, she said, "the students of Broad Meadows, past and present, have been the voice to so many children worldwide.''

The other student speaker was Beth Bloomer, who co-founded an after-school social activism program called Operation Day‚s Work. Bloomer is a graduate of Broad Meadows and a 2003 graduate of Archbishop Williams who is now a freshman at Holy Cross College.

In Operation Days Work, students volunteer at social service activities and donate a day's pay to fund an educational project each school year in a developing country chosen by student vote. Anne McLaughlin, director of the Thomas Crane Public Library, and the Rev. Ann Suzedell of Quincy Point Congregational Church also participated in the awards selection.

Sue Scheible may be reached at sscheible@ledger.com