Our theme for the next 2 weeks is the ‘Power of One’. We have been inspired to do this section by the number of voices we hear in the training room and outside about not being able to make a positive contribution because of the negative lag of team members, the boss, the environment etc….These real life instances show us quite the opposite…Here’s to the ‘Power of ONE’

In April 1995, Craig Keilburger of Toronto, Canada, then 12, read about the death of Iqbal Masih, a boy his age in Pakistan who had spent six years chained to a rug loom working in conditions approaching slavery. Iqbal had escaped and joined a crusade against child labour. He had been shot dead in the street.

Craig vowed to keep Iqbal’s cause alive. He started Free the Children, a human-rights group run by kids. Soon Craig felt he had to meet the children he was trying to help. He took a seven-week trip to Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

He discovered child labour everywhere – a girl bagging sweets 11 hours a day, a boy stitching footballs. “I met one eight-year-old girl pulling apart used syringes and needles for their plastic,” Craig remembers. “She wore no gloves.”

The Canadian Prime Minister was in Asia at the same time, discussing export-import deals. Craig met him to talk about the children who made some of those exports. Since then the government in Canada has moved to get tough on its trading partners.

Craig has singlehandedly awakened many to the suffering of an estimated 200 million children. “Why you?” he was asked.

“If everyone said ‘Why me?’ nothing ever would be accomplished,” Craig explains. I’ve met those children. I’ve read the story of Iqbal Masih. Why not me?”

Source: Ed Bradley, “60 minutes” (CBS)