The Globe and Mail – Significant developments in Free The Children’s history

Renee Sylvestre–Williams

September 28, 2015 (Updated: May 15, 2018)

April 24, 1995

The 12-year-old Craig Kielburger recruits 11 classmates to help end child labour after he read about the murder of escaped child slave 12-year-old Iqbal Masih. The group chooses the name Free The Children.

June of 1995The group mails a shoebox to the Indian prime minister containing a 3,000-signature petition demanding the release of child rights crusader (and future Nobel laureate) Kailash Satyarthi

Nov. 21, 1995

Craig Kielburger is the keynote speaker at the Ontario Federation of Labour. They pledge $150,000 to build a rehabilitation centre for rescued child labourers.

Dec. 9, 1995

Mr. Kielburger takes a seven-week trip to South Asia to visit child labourers.

April 21, 1996

Free The Children is featured on 60 Minutes.

1998

Donations from around the world help construct Free The Children’s first schools in Nicaragua, India, Kenya and Ecuador. The first summer leadership camp begins.

Nov. 7, 1998

Mr. Kielburger publishes his first best-selling book, Free The Children, based on his 1995 trip to South Asia. The documentary, It Takes a Child, is released.

October, 1999

Mr. Kielburger appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Ms. Winfrey commits to help Free The Children build 60 more schools.

2004

Free The Children launches the Adopt a Village development model, partnering with communities in eight countries. It provides education, clean water, health care, food security and alternative income.

May of 2004

Bogani Cottages and Tented Camp opens in Kenya to host youth and families for Me to We volunteer trips every year. Similar camps are now in the Ecuadorian Amazon, northwestern India and the Arizona-Mexico border.

Oct. 13, 2004

Craig and Marc Kielburger publish their best-selling book Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World. They create Me to We to offer socially conscious products and experiences.

Nov. 7, 2004

The Free The Children community gathers in Toronto to celebrate the life of youth speaker and mentor Joe Opatowski, who had died a week earlier in a car accident.

Summer, 2007

Roxanne Joyal starts Me to We Artisans, which helps more than 1,400 Maasai women sell their handmade beadwork, empowering and providing them with a reliable income.

Oct. 19, 2007

The first We Day in Toronto celebrates young people’s potential to change the world.

2008

Free The Children opens offices in California and Quebec. Offices have since opened in British Columbia, London and five more U.S. states.

June, 2013

Free The Children and Royal Bank of Canada launch the first We Create Change drive that provides 56,000 people overseas with clean water.

March 7, 2014

The first We Day in Europe at London’s SSE Arena, with Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, Sir Richard Branson and Prince Harry.

October, 2014

Free The Children and Telus launch the WE365 digital community and mobile app.

Read the full Report on We Day here

We use cookies to provide you a great online experience and understand how you want to change the world. Some of these cookies are essential for the website to function. Other cookies are non-essential and we need your consent for these types of cookies. To withdraw your consent, or change your cookie choices, you can choose your preferences by enabling and disabling cookies within the browser you are using. Please read our updated privacy policy before continuing to ensure you understand which types of cookies you have consented to. Learn More