Arupa Tesolin

Craig Keilburger was just 12 years old when he started the “Free the Children.” Organization.  Since then, with the help of his elder brother Mark, his organization has built 420 schools in 120 countries providing education for 35,000 students. He was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. 

His brother Mark was a parliamentary page at that time, with the very important job of bringing water and passing notes around for the elected politicians in the House of Commons in Ottawa.  He laughs when he thinks of how his ambition at the time was to become a leader among the younger pages and teach them the tricks of the trade. He recalled that on his first day he accidentally spilled water on then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.  “He took it well but I was really embarrassed.” said Mark. “Then he made a funny comment and put me at ease.”

He asks the group of more than 2,000 senior Human Resource professionals gathered in Toronto at this month’s annual conference for the Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario, and the largest HR association in Canada (www.hrpao.org),  “What type of legacy do you want to leave behind you?”

This was the same question one particular MP kept asking him, who apparently saw something in the young man, and he made a point of continuing to ask.  At his prompting Mark joined an aid organization and was sent to Thailand, to help at a AIDS hospital.  The nursing staff were expecting him and asked if he was the Canadian doctor.  He replied that he had no medical training.

“Doesn’t matter” they said.  “We’ll teach you in 4 hours what you need to do.”  

He recalls that he was completely overwhelmed.  On his first day there he had an AIDS patient die in front of him, the first time he’d ever experienced a death.  He told the nurses that he couldn’t take it and wanted to go back home.  They said that they needed him and begged him to stay another day or a few days.  They won.  He stayed.

Then he met a group of street kids, many of them working as prostitutes. They didn’t know how old they were, didn’t know their parents, didn’t know their birthday.  Their openness touched his heart.  “You came on a special day” they told him. “Today is the day we celebrate all our birthdays.”  They pick one day a year to do this so they can all celebrate.

Mark then produced a list of sobering numbers:

18 billion – annual sales in the cosmetics industry

18 billion – the cost required to feed all the hungry children in the world

11 billion – annual sales of ice cream

11 billion – the global cost to treat AIDS

5 billion – the sale of cat food

5 billion – the cost of global literacy

Younger brother Craig, was in Grade 7 when he read the newspaper story of a 12 year old Pakinstani boy who had been murdered for speaking out against forced child labour.  This mobilized him to take action.

“I know we’re just kids,” he said to his classmates at school.  “We can’t do a lot but we have to do something.”  So they came up with a crazy idea to free the children. 

He begged his parents to let him go to Asia – India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand for 7 weeks.  His incredibly patient mother looked at him and said.  “Craig, I love you very much.  But you’re 12 and you can’t even take the subway by yourself yet.”

He shows a slide of a young boy in Africa who can’t attend school because he spends his day collecting water for a nearby village.  The diamond and mining companies that bought the lands where they used to get water acquired all the water rights and will not allow the villagers to get water there. 

He tells the story of Santosh, a young African boy from war-torn Sierra Leone.  One day a militia group came to the school brought all the students and teachers outside, lined them up and systematically executed all the teachers, regarded as the “keepers of wisdom.”   Then they told the students they had 2 choices.  Either join them and become a soldier or they would cut off their right hand.  These were people who would recruit child soldiers by cutting the child’s temple, rubbing cocaine in and giving them a gun.  The child would then literally go crazy with gun in hand killing people.

Santosh stood up and walked up to the front holding his right arm high saying to the others. “You’ve made me your leader.  Our village believes in peace.  Please leave now.”

The leaders joked about whether they should give him long sleeves or short sleeves.  After they cut his arm off the courageous young man walked back to the others with his arm still raised.      

There is hope even in hell.  Craig met Santosh again a few years later and asked him how he was.  He said to Craig “I taught my left hand to be a carpenter.”  He produced several sets of artistic wood work that he now makes and sells.

Craig asked him if that incident was the hardest thing he had ever done. 

“No.” Santosh answered.  “The hardest thing was a few years later when I met the man who had cut off my arm and shook his right hand with my left hand as a sign of peace.”

Craig and Mark then outlined many of the current myths and realities of corporate social responsibility.

Myth # 1 – CSR will hurt your bottom line.

Truth – CSR will help save money and save the environment.

In 2002 Xerox’s waste reduction program reduced environmental waste by 1.5 billion pounds and saved 2 million dollars.

A similar program by 3M saved 807 tons of waste and 8.27 million dollars

Myth #2 – One company can’t fix all the world’s problems so why try?

Truth – In 1998 Lenscrafters “Gift of Sight” program resulted in 1.6 million pairs of eyeglasses recycled.

Myth #3 – CSR is a publicity stunt.

Truth – CSR often leads to higher performance and profits.

Myth #4 – No one will notice.

Truth – Nike took a $5 billion stock loss in 1997 because of human rights issues involving reports of sweatshop labour.

Myth #5 – If we support it, no one will notice.

Truth – In 2004:

80% of investors say CSR wins their trust and would make a decision about where to work or invest based on the presence of CSR.

86% of consumers would switch brands if price and quality were associated with a CSR cause.

Myth #6 – CSR ends at our border

Truth – Health issues are interconnected, ie bird flu and fears of this and other pandemics that know no borders.  The presence of poverty is increasingly connected with political instability.  Our ozone layer doesn’t recognize borders.

Myth #7 – CSR was just a flavour of the month. It’s on the way out.

Truth – Consumers, shareholders and employees will continue to vote with their feet.

The Keilburgers quoted Mother Therea as saying “We can do no great things.  But we can do small things with great love.”  They suggest the following as a road map to help implement a successful Corporate Social Responsibility program.

1.)  Choose an issue your company, employees and stakeholders care about.

2.) Conduct an environmental audit and find ways to cut waste.

3.) Offer to pay your employees for their community service.

4.) Invest in your human capital.  Microsoft invests in gym fees for their employees. Every $1 invested in employee health this was save them $1.92 in health care costs, almost 200%. 

5.) Communicate your commitment.

6.) Give your employees something to rally around.

Mark Kielburger closed by recalling a conversation he’d had with Bishop Desmond Tutu.  “I was complaining about how I didn’t enjoy reading the newspaper in the morning because it was full of bad news.  Desmond looked at me and said he loved reading the paper, he called the bad news ‘God’s Prayer List’.  These are all the things we have to fix.”

Both Mark and Craig live in Toronto, Canada. For more information visit  www.leaderstoday.com and www.freethechildren.com

About the Author:

the new book Ting! – A Surprising Way to Listen to Intuition and Do Business Better, which will be released in Canada in the fall of 2006.  Her company Intuita provides learning events, e-learning courses and a Retail Training Store for management, workforce, career and personal development. Details at www.intuita.com.