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To free every child
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Harvard Gazette
Posted: April 6th, 2026
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/09/nobel-laureat...
Kailash Satyarthi, the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against child labor and exploitation, said his mission as a children’s rights activist began when he himself was a child. On his first day of school, Satyarthi saw another kid about his age working as a shoeshine boy instead of attending class. It disturbed him. “I started looking at the world with different eyes, and I began questioning it because it wasn’t right,” [he said]. Satyarthi put his feelings into action. At just 11, he collected used books and created a book bank for poor children. The first rescue operation he undertook, with friends and colleagues, was to free a 14-year girl who had been abducted and was about to be sold to a brothel. As an adult he considered creating a charity or an orphanage, but instead founded an organization to defend children’s rights, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement), which campaigns to end bonded labor, child labor, and human trafficking, and advocates for education for all children. An admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, Satyarthi gave up his career as an electrical engineer and his high-caste name, Sharma, in the 1980s, swapping it for Satyarthi, which means “seeker of truth.” He also started working full time for his cause. Through his organization, Satyarthi has freed more than 80,000 children from forced labor in dangerous rescue operations. Two members of his group have been killed, one shot and the other beaten to death by criminal gangs. “My mission in life is that every child on the earth is free; free to walk to school, free to laugh, free to play. When every child is free to be a child, only then my dream will come true.”
Note: Meet the beekeeper who left his job to create a network of rescuers that has freed hundreds of Kurdish Yazidi women sold into slavery by ISIS. In 19 countries, an international network of over 3,000 motorcyclists lives by a motto: No child deserves to live in fear. They call themselves Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA). Their sacred mission is to empower and protect the many children who've endured child abuse—from being their 24/7 guardians to attending court hearings, serving as escorts, and working with law enforcement. Explore more positive stories like this on ending sex abuse and human trafficking.
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