by Kailash Satyarthi
Date: Thursday, June 12 at 6:00 AM PDT
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Cost: Suggested donation $10 US.
While we provide an option to attend this webinar for free, as a nonprofit we depend on donations and your contribution is greatly appreciated!
Why Didn't You Come Sooner? Compassion in Action. Stories of Children Rescued From Slavery.
The work of rescuing children from slavery is not for the faint of heart, as the twelve gut-wrenching accounts in this book will show. Harder still is to give them their life back, after they've been kidnapped, trafficked, sold, abused and made to work in horrific conditions,often for as long as they can remember.
Pradeep was offered up for human sacrifice by his family, thought to be a bad omen; Devli was a third-generation slave in a stone quarry in Haryana, who had never seen a banana before her rescue; Ashraf, a domestic child labourer at a senior civil servant's house, was starved and scalded as punishment; Sahiba was trafficked from Assam to be someone's wife against her will; Kalu was abducted and made to weave carpets all day long, his injuries cauterized with phosphorus scraped off matchsticks; Bhavna was trapped in a circus, sexually abused for years by her owners; Rakesh was worked in the fields all year round like cattle, and spent the nights locked up with them in the stable; Sabo was born to labourers at a brick kiln, and never knew life outside it; and Manan lived his childhood mining mica in the forests of Jharkhand, barely given time to even mourn his friend who got buried when the mine caved in.
Kailash Satyarthi's own life and mission were entwined with the journeys of these children. Having lived through unspeakable trauma, they had lost faith in humanity. But behind their reticence, behind their scraggy limbs and calloused hands and feet, hope still endured. This book tells the story of their shared struggle for justice and dignity-from the raid and rescue operations of Satyarthi's Bachpan Bachao Andolan, to international campaigns for child rights. It is a testament both to the courage of the human spirit and to the power of compassion.
About the Author: NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE Kailash Satyarthi
Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a social reformer par excellence, stands as one of the tallest leaders and the loudest voice for the oppressed and voiceless. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his ‘struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.'
A global thought leader and the founder of the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion, his dedication to social reforms is unparalleled. His fearless and unrelenting policy advocacy efforts towards the elimination of violence against the powerless have resulted in path-breaking legislations globally. Through his organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Mr. Satyarthi has liberated more than 132,000 children from child labour, slavery, trafficking, and other forms of exploitation and developed a successful model for their education, rehabilitation, and reintegration into mainstream society.
The Global March Against Child Labour, which he led, galvanized support in 103 countries, resulting in the adoption of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which went on to become the only universally ratified convention in the history of the ILO. He is also the founding president of the Global Campaign for Education, an exemplary civil society movement working to end the global education crisis.
He successfully spearheaded a countrywide movement to make education a Constitutional Provision which subsequently paved the way for the Right to Free and Compulsory Education in India in 2009. Mr Satyarthi is credited for establishing GoodWeave International (previously known as Rugmark), a first-of-its-kind certification and social labelling mechanism for child labour-free carpets in South Asia.
He has worked to advance ethical business practices, to help businesses liberate their supply chains from child labour. He has been at the forefront of driving child-related agendas into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which resulted in the UN Secretary-General appointing him an SDG Advocate in 2021. Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation is ensuring an end to the exploitation of children in India and around the world by addressing the inequality, injustice and discrimination that lie at the core of child labour. Mr Satyarthi has dedicated his life to realising his vision of ending violence against children and building a world where every child is free to be a child.
In 2016, Mr Satyarthi launched Laureates and Leaders for Children, a platform bringing together Nobel Laureates and leaders committed to working together for the world’s most vulnerable children. Alongside former child labourers and students, he also launched the 100 Million campaign in 2016 to inspire and mobilise young people to stand up and act for their rights and the rights of their peers. Mr Satyarthi has been at the forefront of demanding social protection for vulnerable children living in African nations and other low-income countries. For him, every minute matters, every child matters and every childhood matters.
Mr. Satyarthi has received several prestigious awards including the Parliamentarians for Global Action Defender of Democracy Award (2009-USA); the Alfonso Comin International Award (2008-Spain); the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award (1995- USA); the Medal of the Italian Senate (2007-Italy); Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Human Rights Award (1999-Germany); Wockhardt Foundation, Lifetime Achievement Award (2019); Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice (2019); Rotary International Award of Honour (2022-USA); Honorary Doctorate Degree for Social Justice and Education, Amrita University (2022- India) among many other accolades. In 2017, he
received the Guinness World Record for Largest Child Safe Guarding Lesson. In 2024 he was the recipient of the Charter for Compassion's Karen Armstrong Humanitarian Award.
Mr. Satyarthi's life and mission embody the profound impact of compassion, illustrating its transformative power to drive meaningful change. He strongly believes that compassion is not a weak emotion but one that provides endless energy and drive to take compassionate action to alleviate others' suffering as if it were one's own. Through his latest movement, Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion, Mr. Satyarthi aims to globalise compassion to promote a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.
About the facilitator: Gard Jameson
Gard Jameson received his Ph.D. from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2005. He teaches Chinese and Indian Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to his tenure at UNLV, he spent 25 years practicing as a Certified Public Accountant and Financial Planner at Piercy, Bowler, Taylor & Kern and Touche Ross.
He is the author of three books, Footprints on the Sands of Time (1985), the story of his mentor, Dr. Raymond M. Alf, Phaethon: Our Mythic Moment (2009), an ancient Greek tale that illuminates our current predicament, and Monkey: Our Mythic Moment (2012), the grand epic of China.
Gard helped found and chairs the boards of the Children's Advocacy Alliance and the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. He is the Treasurer of VMSN (Volunteer in Medicine in Southern Nevada). He also helped found the Nevada Community Foundation.
Gard also serves on the board of the Stillpoint Center for Spiritual Development and the Alf Museum of Life in Claremont, California, and is the associate pastor at Grace Community Church in Boulder City, Nevada.
Gard is also a member of the Charter for Compassion's Board of Trustees.
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