Thread

Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking at American University School of International Service in Washington DC, on the eradication of child labor and the role of compassion. A participant asked me, child labor is a socioeconomic issue and a crime in the present time when profit is the core motive; how can #compassion be taught? I replied that in the last 20 years, the number of child labourers has decreased from approximately 250 million to 140 million. So, the real question is how fast we can eradicate it, not if can we eradicate it. We have enough knowledge about what works and what does not. And there is no dearth of resources, institutions, national and international laws, or frameworks of action. What we need is a sense of moral responsibility and urgency. We must ask ourselves, if they were our children would we ignore them or delay freeing them for even one single day? This urgency and responsibility is compassion. Compassion is not a soft emotion or moral value. It is a force for action. You do not need to learn compassion because you are all born with it. You just need to ignite and activate it. I was very excited to meet many old colleagues who have been championing the cause of child laborers for decades. Thanks to Dean Rachel Robinson, Prof Judy Gearhart of American University, Jon Jacoby CEO of GoodWeave International, Tim Ryan Global Chair of GlobalMarchAgainst Child Labour, Lisa McDonald, Sally Greenberg, JD CEO of National Consumers League (NCL) for the good discussions on Solving Global Child labour with Compassion.