Change is less me, more we

BASYA LAYE

Among the images of young people, few are as ubiquitous as the bored, self-centred, impetuous and cynical teenager. Another image, less often seen, is of the passionate, sometimes zealous, care and concern that young people can conjure when it comes to injustice in the lives of other children around the world.

Fifteen years ago, a 12-year-old Craig Kielburger was reading the newspaper and was struck by the story of a boy in Pakistan, Iqbal Masih, who had been sold into slavery at four years of age for less than $16 and then murdered at age 12. Like most people reading that story, Kielburger was horrified. Unlike most people reading that story, he decided to mobilize, compelled to make a difference, asking one question: “How can I help?” Inspired by his brother Marc, who had been campaigning for environmental action, Kielburger founded Free the Children (FTC).

Now the largest network of children helping children, FTC’s “primary goals are to free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the notion that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world,” according to promotional materials.

Vancouver businessman Lorne Segal, president of Kingswood Properties Ltd., came to hear about FTC in a similarly fortuitous manner. In an interview with the Independent, Segal recounted that auspicious morning six years ago.

Invited to an early morning breakfast, like many busy people, Segal attended grudgingly, hoping for a quick and painless day.

“It was, I think, Philanthropy Day Vancouver, and I think there were about 600 other people who probably felt the same way as me. The keynote speaker was a young Craig Kielburger. I hadn’t really heard of Craig – although now, I understand he’s one of the most decorated Canadians, regardless of age – and I witnessed this young – Craig was probably about 20 at the time – I witnessed this incredible young man speaking for close to an hour, without a note, passionately telling his story.”

Segal was impressed, particularly as he thought of his two young children, Chanelle and Matthew. Always on the lookout for inspiring examples to share, Segal said, “Everything I do in life is probably driven by whether or not it would be a good example for them.... Whenever there’s an opportunity to expose them to something meaningful or to a great example of a human being, that’s what I look for.”

After a brief hello, the experience receded into the recesses of his mind, until a few years ago, when he was invited to a conference coinciding with a Vancouver visit by the Dalai Lama.

“I was invited to a conference called Connecting for Change and the purpose of the conference ... was to see how the business sector could help the social sector – which is how things should be.... [It] was another one of those things that you kind of hesitate to go to ... one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, is I’ve got to say yes more often, it’s pretty easy to say no.”

It was at that conference that Segal connected with Roxanne Joyal, who was married to Marc Kielburger. Segal admitted that, at the time, “I didn’t fully understand the scope of Free the Children, but I wanted to expose Chanelle and Matthew ... to something meaningful.”

Segal then got the sign he needed to get involved. “I arrived at my office and there was a hand-woven basket. I opened it and there were hand-beaded necklaces that the Masai Mara warriors wear, and some hand-carved giraffes, and an invitation from Craig and Marc Kielburger to join them in Africa in August. And, I looked up and said, ‘Thank you God.’ You know, this has been weighing heavy on my shoulders.... It was an invitation for four and that’s the size of my family.... We made the decision to go to Africa as a family.”

After several stops in Europe and a bar mitzvah for Matthew in Israel, the family was in Kenya.

“There we saw firsthand what [FTC] does.... It was really a hands-on experience. We built a school, worked on a clean water project, we went into the villages and met with the local mamas and heard their stories about how things work. The kids went into the classrooms and worked with the kids. They had a math competition.... It was a transformational experience.”

Segal and his family, now fully committed to FTC’s mandate, wanted to help expand its programming in Vancouver. Locally, FTC “inspires young people to develop as socially conscious global citizens and provides them with the skills, confidence and awareness to take action and make a difference.”

Segal decided that a powerful way to grow local awareness and involvement would be to bring FTC’s We Day to Vancouver. Billed as “a rock concert for social change,” the event celebrates “the power of young people to change the lives of others,” by bringing together some of the world’s top social issues speakers and entertainers.

In 2007, Segal and his children made the trek to Toronto for what was then called Me to We Day. It’s a day he and his family are unlikely to forget. “We had no idea what we were really in for, but there we were in a crowd of 8,000 kids, all wearing ‘Me to We’ T-shirts and cheering like they were at a rock concert but, in fact, cheering for social change. I had never experienced anything like this. It was so empowering and I said to myself, ‘We need to take the show on the road,’ and I believed strongly that I could engage the community at large, here, in terms of both the education community, the corporate community, which certainly is a vital component, to try to make something like that happen. To get 16,000 kids, as it happened in the case of Vancouver, mobilized, free of charge, to GM Place – we made the commitment. But we didn’t know how that was going to happen when I made that commitment.”

Harnessing the energy and commitment of his children on top of his own efforts, Segal is extremely proud of the leadership role taken on by his children in bringing We Day to Vancouver.

“Chanelle and Matthew were ambassadors for three years.... They brought Marc, spoke at Chanelle’s school, which was Crofton at the time.... Craig spoke at my son’s school, which is still St. Georges, when he was in Grade 8 and ... both heads of school said their schools would never be the same. The stages were rushed by the kids, hundreds of kids.... They rushed the stage like they were celebrities, like they were rock stars. It was quite something. My son started a Me to We club at school and it went from like zero to 200 members overnight, because here these kids were witnessing the finest examples of contemporary leadership that I can think of, not just for our children, but for ourselves.”

In his speech to the 16,000 teens at Vancouver’s We Day last September, Segal shared some inspiration with the crowd. “Leadership is the expression of courage which compels you to do the right thing,” he told those gathered.

Segal believes this is a natural and essential element to being human. “I believe that we all, kids, adults, we all have this inherent need, almost as strong as primary needs like food and water, I think we need to grow and we need to feel like we’re making a contribution. So many people sit on the fence and do nothing because they feel that they have to do something huge to make a difference. And We Day is about doing small acts of kindness. It’s the idea that we can all attain happiness by simply finding the courage to reach out and help others, less focus on me and more on we.”

Segal took it upon himself to approach the Jewish day schools and synagogues in the Vancouver area to encourage them to become involved. The response he got was very positive, he said. “I’m not a talmudic expert, but I do know that one of the driving principles ... is kindness and compassion. That’s what We Day is all about, so it’s absolutely ... a Jewish way.”

Segal admits that he is privileged to come from a line of exemplary models of community involvement, both in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds, including that of his father, Joe, and of his grandfather, Abrasha Wosk, an early patriarch of the local Jewish community. Of these familial examples, Segal said, “As you grow up, you try to figure out how do you make your contribution. We all have to choose where the greatest opportunity, where you make your most significant contribution.”

Segal believes that We Day exemplifies the Dalai Lama’s message, “when he talks about educating the heart.... His idea is that you can’t always prevent war, but we can start this process of educating the heart ... the beautiful thing about We Day is that it can start at 12 years old or less.... You would be so amazed at those kids, they were so quiet, how they listened, they applauded at the right time. You know, to a great extent, I think we tend to underestimate the capacity of young kids and when you saw them there, they got it, and they couldn’t get enough.”

FTC is active in countries around the world, with a goal of empowering children and their families to break the cycle of poverty. After We Day, students raise awareness and funds to build schools and support clean water, health and alternative income projects for communities in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, India, Sierra Leone and China. The program is accompanied by a year-long We Day in-class curriculum and teacher resource guide.

Kielburger is clearly thankful for Segal’s contributions and commitment. “During what seem to be an impossible time to create something of this magnitude, it was the generous donations and time spent by Lorne and Vancouver’s corporate leaders that made this life-changing event possible and free for students,” he said in a statement. “Their show of leadership has truly empowered young people to realize they have the skills, conviction and passion to make very real local and global impacts.”

It seems when people come in contact with the kind of energy inspired by the Kielburger brothers and personified by the commitment of Segal and his family, there’s almost nothing they can do to avoid becoming engaged. They are, in fact, compelled to act.

To learn more or become involved in Free the Children and We Day, visit freethechildren.com. The video of We Day 2009 is at ctv.ca, under the Video Library link.

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