The Next Generation of Changemakers
The following post was written by Co-Founder Harry Leibowitz.
We hear so much news about children getting into trouble at a young age that I thought it would be good to alter the paradigm just a little bit.
This is the story of Thomas (age 12) and Mickey (age 10), two young brothers in the San Diego area. Their Mom works for a global charity that supports vulnerable women and children, and after watching their Mom, they decided that she “needed their help”. Imagine that!
They were fascinated by some of the handmade bead bracelets Mom had brought back from Africa and they decided to learn how to make them here and sell them to raise money for the charity PCI Global. But they did this in a most unique way, and we can all learn from them. They used a model they had learned from Junior Achievement and set up a company involving two of their friends, Billy and Bella, and they made and sold beaded necklaces and bracelets. Before you knew it they had raised over $1,000 for the charity.
But that’s not the end of the story. They soon realized that they could do even more good if they actually bought the beads from women in Africa who make them for a living. By doing this they realized they were helping at both ends of the financial spectrum; they were giving viable, sustainable work to women in Africa who needed the jobs and they were using the funds raised to help others through PCI.
Their creativity and commitment show that young people can and do make a really significant difference in the world, especially if we give them the chance and the role model.