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The Canadian Press

Canadian wins children's rights award

Canadian Press, various newspapers in Canada, April 18, 2006, By TARA BRAUTIGAM

(CP) - Craig Kielburger's quest to protect children's rights began more than a decade ago, when he read a newspaper article on the death of a Pakistani boy reportedly killed for speaking out against child slavery after escaping his plight as an underage carpet weaver.

In response, the 12-year-old Thornhill, Ont., boy founded Free the Children, a youth-driven organization that strives to prevent child exploitation and poverty by building schools in developing nations.

"Why I started Free the Children was seeing this story and feeling angry about it," Kielburger said Tuesday in a phone interview from Stockholm, Sweden after winning the 2006 World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child, also known as the Children's Nobel Prize.

The award, worth about $114,000 Cdn, is split into three parts and honours efforts to improve the lives of children worldwide. Previous winners include former South African president Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who penned a diary of her life before the Nazis killed her, and Iqbal Masih, the child slave whose death sparked Kielburger's campaign.

Kielburger, now 23, said he hopes the prize will inspire children across the world to follow in his footsteps.

"In awarding the World Children's Prize to a group of young people, I think that the jury is sending a message that, even at a young age, you don't have to be an adult or a politician or a Mandela . . . to make a big difference," he said.

His charity, which celebrates its 11th anniversary Wednesday, has built more than 425 schools in 23 countries and helped provide clean water to more than 100,000 children.

The politically-minded wunderkind shares the award with a group of orphans whose parents were slaughtered during Rwanda's 1994 genocide and the Dalai Lama's sister.

He says it's gratifying to be in such esteemed company, but insists he's more moved by the child jurors, whose own freedoms have been violated.

"It's humbling when a former child slave or a child who was previously forced into the sex trade or a child who lost a limb from a landmine presents an award because they understand what child's rights are," he said.

Sweden's Queen Silvia will hold an awards ceremony for the winners at Gripsholm's Castle outside Stockholm on Thursday.

Despite the prestigious prize and his admirable ambitions, Kielburger can't escape the daily trappings of life as a student at the University of Toronto.

"I have to cut the awards ceremony short. I have to return to Toronto for exams," laughed the peace and conflict studies major, set to graduate next month.

"They jokingly said I'm the first person besides Mandela who has ever had to cut it short."

The Association of Orphan Heads of Households, a Rwandan network of 6,000 orphans, was given the Global Friends' Award. Jetsum Pema, the Dalai Lama's sister, received the World Children's Honorary Award for spending the last 40 years working with Tibetan refugee children in India.

She helped create the Tibetan Children's Villages, which helps give about 15,000 refugee children a home and education each year.

"It is very encouraging that we get this recognition," Pema said. "It gives us extra strength to go on."

The award was set up in 1999 by the Swedish Children's World Association to recognize outstanding contributions of those who defend youth rights.

Associated Press

Why boys are in trouble

Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong

The Associated Press
January 5, 1999

According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'

When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.

The Boy Crisis Book - Warren Farrell - John Gray

The Boy Crisis Book

The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It

Authors- Waren Farrell PhD and John Gray PhD

What is the boy crisis?

It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science.

It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.

It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison.

It's a crisis of purpose. Boys' old sense of purpose-being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner-are fading. Many bright boys are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification.

So, what is The Boy Crisis? A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect.   Read More ..

The Boy Crisis

The War Against Boys: How misguided feminism is harming our young men

War Against Boys Book-Gender Bias Misandry

Canadian flag
Health Canada Publication

The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens

"... the existence of a double standard in the care and treatment of male victims, and the invisibility and normalization of violence and abuse toward boys and young men in our society.

Despite the fact that over 300 books and articles on male victims have been published in the last 25 to 30 years, boys and teen males remain on the periphery of the discourse on child abuse.

Few workshops about males can be found at most child abuse conferences and there are no specialized training programs for clinicians. Male-centred assessment is all but non-existent and treatment programs are rare. If we are talking about adult males, the problem is even greater. A sad example of this was witnessed recently in Toronto. After a broadcast of The Boys of St. Vincent, a film about the abuse of boys in a church-run orphanage, the Kids' Help Phone received over 1,000 calls from distraught adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It is tragic in a way no words can capture that these men had no place to turn to other than a children's crisis line."

American Psychological Association

American Psychological Association
Dating Violence Statistics in the United States

Nearly one in 10 girls and one in 20 boys say they have been raped or experienced some other form of abusive violence on a date, according to a study released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

National Post

The mean T-shirt: From the Stupid Factory

Todd Goldman says his popular boy-bashing T-shirts are simply funny.

So why are retailers having second thoughts?  Read More ..

Why boys are in trouble

Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong

The Associated Press

According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'

When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.