|
OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
|
District 11 Office |
Education Matters Online
Feature
Volume 2, Issue 2: December 15, 2003
Marc Kielburger Speaks in Thames Valley |
The District 11 Human Rights / Status of Women Committee, together with the Thames Valley District School Board and Nelson, sponsored an event on November 4 featuring Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Leaders Today and Executive Director of Kids Can Free the Children, who spoke about these two organizations and the new book Take Action: A Guide to Active Citizenship (photo 3). In the afternoon, Marc spoke to a packed gymnasium of students at College Avenue Secondary School in Woodstock (photo 5) , and then at 4:00 to an audience in the auditorium at the Education Centre in London.
Marc spoke passionately about how he came to be a activist as a teenager (photo 1 above) and how that has continued into his adult life. His particular focus is fighting against child labour (photo 2) and providing schools for them to go to instead. He inspired his audiences to think hard about their own lives and how they too could make a difference in the lives of those far less fortunate than we are.
The principal, some teachers and students from Kensal Park French Immersion Public School were in the audience at the Education Centre. At the end of Marc's address, principal Andrea Paturel (photo 4) spoke about how Marc and Craig Kielburger had inspired the students at Kensal Park to embark on a fund-raising drive to raise money to help build a school in a needy part of the world, and they presented Marc with a cheque for that purpose.
The Human Rights / Status of Women Committee has held two gathering so far, each of which focused on a separate resource that was distributed to the branches. The first was held to promote and distribute a new text from Nelson Publishing called Take Action: A Guide to Active Citizenship by Marc and Craig Kielburger. The committee purchased one copy of this text for each school. The second was held to distribute the new OSSTF curriculum pacakge Common Threads: Globalization, Sweatshops and the Clothes We Wear.
