WE.org | 25 years of impact and gratitude

WE CHARITY AND THE CANADA STUDENT SERVICE GRANT: GET THE REAL FACTS HERE.

Looking back on a movement and a dream to empower young people

In 1995, 12-year-old Craig Kielburger read the story of Iqbal Masih, a child laborer of the same age who escaped slavery and was murdered for advocating for children’s rights. Inspired to take action, Craig rallied his classmates and his brother, Marc, to join his cause. Iqbal’s story showed Craig and Marc that people as young as them could drive significant change in the world around them.

They channelled this inspiration into creating WE Charity, a unique movement that sought to give young people a voice and a platform to become agents of global change.

WE Charity Global Impacts

People received clean water

Children educated

Women-led businesses launched

Meet some of the incredible people we've partnered with over the past 25 years

KENYA

Mercy Ntuala: one of Kenya’s first female safari guides

ECUADOR

Mercedes Naula: she realizes her right to clean water

KENYA

Mama Jane: CEO of the Maasai Mara

HAITI

Dieuna Ira: building a business one goat at a time

Partnering with communities to achieve sustainable, generational change

Developed and honed over 25 years, the WE Villages international development model is an integrated, holistic approach that recognizes and leverages the power of community partnership and ownership in achieving long-term sustainable change. Based on five pillars of impact, it empowers communities to drive their own development, be agents in their transformation and break the cycle of poverty.

Putting children first: winding down WE Charity in Canada

WE Charity was founded 25 years ago in Canada with the dual mission of inspiring children at home to make a difference through service, and helping children around the world to escape extreme poverty. With the best interests of the children we serve in mind, we will wind down our Canadian operations, and sell all of our assets to establish an endowment fund to sustain the charity’s existing international humanitarian programs and digitize its Canadian educational resources.

COVID-19 disrupted every aspect of our work. The fallout from the Canada Student Service Grant has placed us, as a charity, in the middle of political battles and misinformation that we are ill-equipped to fight.

The financial math for the charity’s future is clear. Without decisive action, WE Charity’s ongoing costs to operate in Canada would exceed revenue and consume savings that are essential to establish the endowment fund. We calculate that this action preserves as many humanitarian and educational programs as possible, for as long as possible. Putting children first means prioritizing them above the charity.

All available resources will be dedicated to ensuring children in developing countries have access to our humanitarian programs and children in Canada can access our educational programs for the long-term.

This is a heartbreaking decision. WE Charity, one of the largest youth organizations, was built by 2,500 current and former staff, thousands of volunteers, and countless supporters.

WE Charity will sell its Global Learning Centre headquarters and other assets to fund a new endowment that will be managed by an independent board with a mandate to sustain our humanitarian programs for the long-term.

While no new school, health or water projects will be possible, the endowment will ensure the continued operation of WE Charity global projects currently in place. It will also ensure that a quarter century of curriculum, service campaigns, and youth mental health materials will remain available for Canadian educators and students at WE.org.

It is impossible to express the profound sense of regret that we have about all of this coming to a close; a feeling matched only by our immense gratitude to all who made these impacts possible.

Our greatest thanks go to the hard-working student volunteers for the past 25 years of impact. You can count on us to always support you on your journey. During these trying times in our world, we hope that you will continue to believe in goodness, act with empathy, have compassion for each other, give others the benefit of the doubt, and strive to be global citizens and shameless idealists.

Sincerely,

Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger WE Charity Co-Founders

A message from Craig Kielburger

Craig and Marc Kielburger being interviewed by CTV news anchor Lisa LaFlamme

CTV NEWS INTERVIEW

In order to ensure that accurate information about WE Charity is available to all, Craig and Marc Kielburger sat down for an hour-long in-depth interview with CTV News Anchor Lisa LaFlamme.

WE Charity Canadian Impacts

Schools engaged in WE service campaigns

Charities supported by students

Students attended WE Day celebrations of service