Kids get a lot of bad press. We're told that they’re rude, selfish, consumeristic, with no manners, no motivation and no interest in anyone but themselves. But in fact there are engaged and altruistic young people out there everywhere. 

Geraldine Royds investigates

These particular children are especially inspiring. They are not waiting for adults to do it - they are busy making things happen themselves. They are bringing about the changes they want to see.

Ana Dodson

'When we arrived at the orphanage the children streamed out smiling and laughing. Once we went inside they sang and danced for us. We thought they did this for all their visitors but we soon discovered we were the only visitors the children had ever had.’

This experience changed Ana Dodson’s life.  She was only 11 years old when her adoptive family took her back to her birth country, Peru, to get in touch with her roots.  They visited many orphanages including a small remote orphanage in Cusco, near where Ana was born. Ana was shocked at what she saw. She and her mother Judi had brought books and teddy bears for the children but Ana quickly realized they needed so much more. Most of the girls at the orphanage had been abused and abandoned and lacked basic amenities for survival.  Before leaving, a little girl named Gloria hugged her and, with tears in her eyes, told Ana, "You'll never forget us, and you'll help us one day." The images from her trip stayed with Ana once she returned to Colorado. She began collecting school supplies then asked family, friends and local organizations for help.  Her goal was to provide the girls from the Cusco orphanage with food, clothing, an education and, most of all, hope for the future. Peruvian Hearts, was born.

Craig Kielburger

When he was 12 years old, Craig Kielburger read a newspaper story that changed his life. In Pakistan, another 12-year-old boy, Iqbal Masih, had been murdered for bringing attention to the terrible conditions of child slaves in the carpet industry. ‘I saw him as a hero for speaking out about child labor,’ says Kielburger.’I suddenly understood that a young person can make a difference.’  

Craig began to educate himself about human rights. Accompanying an aid worker on a trip though South Asia, he saw, first hand, the personal tragedies behind child labour. He was determined to find some way to help the children he had met. Back home in Canada, Kielburger founded Kids Can Free The Children. With a few friends, he established friendship schools around the world where young people research problems and work together to find solutions.  The group has grown into an extensive network of children helping other children. Believing education to be one of the best ways to fight child labour, volunteers have built more than 500 primary schools, providing daily education to over 50,000 children.

‘Free The Children is trying to help young people not just close their eyes and feel powerless, but to realize that they do have a positive role to play through very simple, very concrete, actions. Maybe it's a petition, or a letter-writing campaign, or a small fundraiser like a bake sale or a car wash. But it empowers them to realize they can make a difference on some level,’ Craig says. ‘And it teaches them that even small actions can help change the world.’

Ibrahim Alex Bangura 

Alex Bangura loves playing soccer at night by the light of the stars and listening to Whitney Houston. When he is not working with the children of Sierra Leone, that is.  A peace worker since he was ten years old, Alex is helping to rehabilitate former child combatants in one of the poorest countries on earth. During 10 years of civil war, thousands of children were kidnapped and trained to be soldiers. Brutalised, brainwashed and often drugged, many young people became both perpetrators and victims of violence.

With his band, Peace Links Musical Youths, 16 year old Alex writes and performs music which focuses on hope and reconciliation.  By teaching the children songs about peace, Alex hopes to give them an alternative to returning to a life of violence.  He is also working to foster tolerance in the community so that, once healed, the former child soldiers can live free of discrimination and hatred.

Because his family is poor, Alex often walks long distances to workshops and concerts which sometimes means missing meals. The band rehearses for many hours and he still has to do his homework when he gets home! 

Alex believes we need to pay more attention to the causes of children worldwide.  ‘I also want everyone to know that Sierra Leone was a peaceful, friendly and beautiful place to live before the war,’ he says.’ We are working very hard to make it that way again.’

Jacob Komar from Burlington, USA, describes himself as a ‘computer fanatic’. And when he heard that his sister's school had a garage-load of old computers they were about to chuck, he was shocked. Why, he wondered, couldn’t they be revamped and given to people unable to afford their own?
‘I started Computers for Communities when I was nine,’ he says. ‘And really, at that time, I had started to work with tearing apart computers and just playing around with old machines that my friends had lying around. So I wanted to be able to do something with that to help people. I knew that there were kids, at least in my local town, and then in other towns surrounding, and then. I realized, all over the word, that don't have computers at home. At that point I couldn't fathom not having a machine at home, I'd been using a machine since I could type on a keyboard, and then mice came along. I started using the mouse. So the computer was such an integral part of my life, that I just couldn't imagine not using a computer.’