Seventy million persons 5-22 years old make up 26% of the population of the United States. They have tremendous means to contribute to global solutions through their gifts of time, talent and treasures.

	Child ragpicker in city dump, India Photo: © Crozet M. - ILO

EDUCATE yourself, friends, your school and community, and others

1.	EDUCATE yourself
2.	Start a CHEER group
3.	BUILD school and community KNOWLEDGE of global child labor issues
4.	Educate policy makers
5.	Shift your purchasing power
6.	Fundraise

1.	EDUCATE yourself about global child labor issues, e.g., the "worst forms of child labor": child slavery, hazardous child labor, etc. Surf the web. Visit the library with a list of questions.

Read some excellent books, such as:

• Exploitation of Children, by Judith Ennew, for Grades 4-6
• Face the Facts: Child Labor, by Kaye Stearman, for Grades 6-8
• Listen to Us: the World's Working Children, by Jane Springer, for Grades 7 and up

*To discover the content and access information for these books and other resources on child labor, see ICCLE's Resource List.

Watch dynamite documentaries. For instance, Stolen Childhoods (86 minutes), a documentary about child labor in seven countries, for Grades 7 (ages 12) and up.

2.	Start a group of Children Helping to Educate (each other and their communities), Eliminate (child labor), and Respond (CHEER).

• Share your knowledge with friends, identify a need, take inventory of your resources, and work out a plan of action.
• Organize weekly meetings and recruit community volunteers to present and organize with you. For more ideas on how to start, consult the Youth Action Toolkit.

3. BUILD school and community KNOWLEDGE of global child labor issues

• Organize and recruit students to attend a screening of "Stolen Childhoods" and host a discussion.
• Involve TEACHERS and parents, including the School Board. Talk to your Social Studies teacher about child labor issues. (Does s/he include child labor in the curriculum?) Promote the inclusion of child labor education into the curriculum. Refer teachers to ICCLE's List of Resources, including ILO-IPEC's SCREAM Stop Child Labor education pack, which can be downloadable for free!
• Ask your teacher/school principal if you (or your group) can give a class-, grade- or school-wide presentation.
• Organize a peer workshop and invite students from other local schools to attend.
• Perform a role play exercise: In pairs, play the roles of a child laborer and an employer. Imagine that you could do anything you wanted to if you were that person and watch each others dramas unfold.
• Create and exhibit a visual art display on child labor.
• Design an educational bookmark containing facts about child labor and strategies to address it. Write to Staples asking them to donate cardstock paper and printing services. Distribute the bookmarks in your community, e.g., at bookstores, etc. To learn how to do this from kids in Iowa, read their Student Action Plan.
• Organize a child labor free shopping trip to the mall. Write a short survey for Store Managers. In groups of three, interview the managers of specific clothing, sports and electronic stores, and the food court. Can they guarantee that every item sold in their stores was made without child labor? . . . To learn how middle school students in Massachusetts did this, read their Student Action Plan.
• Call or send letters to company CEOs at their corporate headquarters, requesting copies of their Worker's Code of Conduct and encouraging CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY.
• Write articles for local publications about your group and the issue to which you are responding. Carefully proofread any articles (flyers/brochures) that you write for the public to catch any mistakes.
• Write a press release announcing an event planned by your group. Remember to include who, what, where, when, why and how.

4. Educate policy makers

• Ask the Heads of ILO, UNESCO, and the World Bank to integrate their policies to eliminate child labor, achieve Education for All, and eradicate poverty.
• Encourage developing countries to integrate plans to eradicate child labor into their National Education Plans and Poverty Reduction Strategies.
• Encourage donor countries to keep their promise to fill in the funding gaps of countries seriously committed to achieving Education for All goals.
• Support the universal ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions 138 and 182.

5. Shift your purchasing power

A shift of just 1% of young Americans' purchasing power to the developing world would equal $2 billion toward the needs of our friends overseas. That money, combined with the resources of local communities, could educate, employ, feed, vaccinate and house millions.

6.	Fundraise for your own project or for an innovative education and/or development project in a less developed country. For instance,

• Sell fairly traded organic hot chocolate at school. Consider ordering products from Equal Exchange
• Organize a day of community service (donate your services, e.g., rake leaves)
• Partner with a local restaurant to donate 20 percent of the proceeds from a dinner to addressing child labor

Always have fun, persevere, and celebrate your group's accomplishments!