Founded in 1995 by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries.
The organization has received the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize), the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, and has formed successful partnerships with leading school boards and Oprah's Angel Network.
The primary goals of the organization 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. It specializes in sustainable development in countries of Kenya, Ecuador, India, Nicaragua, Arizona-Mexico, and China, empowering youth in developed countries to become socially engaged.
Free The Children has built more than 650 schools and school rooms around the world and has reached more than one million young people through outreach in North America and the United Kingdom.
Adopt a Village
Free The Children currently implements its Adopt a Village development model in rural communities in seven countries: China, Nicaragua, Kenya, Sierra Leone, India, Haiti and Ecuador.
Adopt a Village is made up of four components:
Among other projects, Adopt a Village builds schools and water wells, and provides medical treatment and alternative income sources to people in developing regions.These projects are designed to address the root causes of poverty and remove the barriers to children’s education in the developing world. In 2008, Free The Children celebrated the construction of its 500th school. In 2010, the organization updated its website to show that it has now built 650 schools and school rooms which educate 55,000 children a day.
