24 heures de silence
École d'éducation internationale

Once in a while an event will trigger something off, turn our lives upside down and prompt us to make a wonderful gesture. For Caroline Arbour, a Secondary 5 student at the École d’éducation internationale in McMasterville, it was the Millennium Summit held in April 2009 where she attended a talk given by Craig Kielburger, founder of the Free the Children organization. Inspired by his words, she decided to in turn make a tangible gesture and organize a huge fund-raiser. Thanks to her project “24 Hours of Silence,” Caroline and her friends raised more than $16,000 to help children in Sierra Leone and Haiti.

“I was really impressed by the man who, at the age of 12, founded his own organization to denounce child labour throughout the world. I also wanted to denounce this injustice and the best way to do so was to organize a huge awareness campaign while at the same time raising money,” the 16-year-old explains.

Once Caroline had made her decision, she began researching the issue of child labourers and looking for the best way to help them. She became an official participant in the Free the Children’s Adopt a Village program and the idea of setting up the 24 Hours of Silence event immediately sprung to mind. However, the real challenge still lay ahead. She decided to make it her personal end-of-school project for the international studies program but it took a lot of perseverance in order to convince people that she’d be able to successfully carry out the ambitious project. But she managed to gain everyone’s trust.

“I discovered there were 218 million children working in despicable conditions in third-world countries. I think it is only my duty to denounce the situation and do something about it,” she insists.

Caroline thus began planning the event. Above and beyond the logistics however, she had to find participants. It may seem easy, but not talking for 24 hours is a huge challenge, both for participants and those around them. But to Caroline’s great surprise, the idea immediately caught on and many of her friends lent her a hand. Everyone believed in the cause and in the end 444 students out of the total 1,200 at the school took part in the project and brought in donations during the days that followed J Day, that is to say 12 January 2010.

“Throughout the day, I was impressed by the calm that prevailed at school. All participants wore a sticker indicating they we’re allowed to talk. I’d also reserved the auditorium so we could show an awareness film about child labourers. In a way, our silence spoke for itself.”

In reality, Caroline had hoped to have a real impact elsewhere as well as at school and she succeeded. She admits the event wouldn’t have been such a huge success without the tremendous support of her friends and the school staff. And then, when the time came to count the money they’d raised, they were stunned. “It took me several days to count it all and the more I counted the more I had tears in my eyes. I never would have believed that people could be so generous,” she points out.

But the most amazing of all is that with the $16,000 raised, a school will be built in Sierra Leone, in the Kono district, through the Free the Children organization. It costs $8,500 to construct a fully equipped classroom for 50 students, purchase the necessary school supplies and pay a teacher’s salary for one year. Moreover, $5,000 will be used to build a well in the same community as the school. The remaining money will go towards the purchase of medical supplies for children in Haiti.

“Thanks to the project, we as students have proven that it’s not just up to adults to make gestures of solidarity. I think young people can also change the world. I am proud of my project and of all those who helped me make it a success. I hope to encourage other young people to take action and to champion a cause they feel strongly about. We can indeed bring about change and my project is proof,” Caroline Arbour says with enthusiasm.

24 heures de silence
École d'éducation internationale