Craig Kielburger

“When I was 12, I read about Iqbal Masih, a child slave who escaped the carpet factory where he'd been chained to a loom since the age of four. Iqbal led an anti-child labor crusade that made global headlines, including the one that first caught my attention.”

“My own service started when I was 12, with the small charity I launched with 12 friends. Twenty years later, millions have joined our ranks - educators, business leaders and prominent Canadians.”

“The children of Qunu stood for hours on the side of a brand new stretch of highway as they waited for the hearse carrying Nelson Mandela to come into view.”

“Success to us is not just a girl overseas going to school - but also leading her village to a better future.”

“We want to end poverty and protect our environment. But we think the most efficient way of achieving that is to change the way a generation of young people is educated. That's how you'll shift the world.”

“In South Africa, there is only one name that every child knows, every leader invokes, and every grandparent tells their grandchildren about. Madiba.”

“We learned that kicking down doors to free children from carpet factories isn't enough to stop child labour - we had to tackle the underlying poverty in which their families lived, through education.”

“And in rural communities we've worked alongside, Haitians are doing far more than merely recovering from the earthquake. Many are creating long-term sustainable change.”

“When you stand amid the unending vistas of Kenya's Maasai Mara, it's impossible to remain focused inward. Your mind expands to the distant horizons.”

“But while Nelson Mandela's work is sadly done, his dream is unfinished.”

“In the We Connectivity Hub, three global classrooms fitted with Skype technology from Microsoft will bring workshops, leadership training and mentorship to the most remote and unreachable rural communities in Canada - especially Indigenous communities - without having to fly thousands of kilometres to an urban centre.”

“There's no magic bullet to end poverty in the world. But if you could, the closest thing to it would be basic primary education.”

“Service learning connects classroom studies to real-world issues, with hands-on activities and problem solving. Youth can study biology and ecology by testing the water in their own community; or learn about statistics, calculating the food supply and usage at the local food bank.”