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Activism is people joining together to fight for change.

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An activist is anyone who sees the need for change and devotes their time to doing something about it. And, as successful teen activists prove, structural, social, or economic barriers don't have to stop you from pursuing your passion and creating positive change. If you are interested in making a difference for a cause you care about, you can do so by educating yourself about the issue, finding ways to get involved in-person and online, and possibly even pursuing a career in a field related to your cause.

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Is registering people to vote a form of activism?

Bridget Connolly has volunteered on political campaigns at the local and federal level for over 10 years, most notably for the 2008 Obama campaign in Nevada and Josh Harder's Congressional race in 2018. She has gone door-to-door to help register voters and get out the vote in both California and Nevada.

Yes! Registering people to vote helps remove barriers for people who have been marginalized by educational systems, culture, and misinformation about the importance of their vote. I've had so many experiences where every vote counts. If 500 people are registering people to vote in a specific county, and we each get 1 person, and somebody wins by 400 votes, that's a really big deal. I think it's a civic duty for people who understand how politics work and understand that voting is at the bedrock of all of that. The people who don't vote are essentially disenfranchised; they aren't playing a part in what's happening with their tax dollars and who is representing them at the local, state, and federal level. All levels. It takes a lot of work to stay informed, but that's how our system is set up. You're voting people into power, so it's a civic duty.

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This article was co-authored by Bridget Connolly and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD. Bridget Connolly has volunteered on political campaigns at the local and federal level for over 10 years, most notably for the 2008 Obama campaign in Nevada and Josh Harder's Congressional race in 2018. She has gone door-to-door to help register voters and get out the vote in both California and Nevada. This article has been viewed 888,355 times.

Updated: November 19, 2023

If you feel passionately about an issue and want to become an activist, start by contacting local or online organizations with a similar mission. Ask them if you can volunteer your time or donate your money to contribute to the cause. Alternatively, you can also promote your cause on social media, share news articles, and circulate online petitions to raise awareness. Be sure to stay well-informed by keeping current with any news related to your cause! For tips on finding organizations that support your cause, read on!

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 888,355 times.

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An activist is anyone who sees the need for change and devotes their time to doing something about it. And, as successful teen activists prove, structural, social, or economic barriers don't have to stop you from pursuing your passion and...

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Pet "overpopulation" encompasses two primary factors: (1) allowing cats and dogs to reproduce with little chance to find homes for the offspring and (2) pets being relinquished by owners who can no longer keep their animals, or who no longer want them.

Every year, millions of cats and dogs are euthanized in our nation's animal shelters because there are more pets than there are responsible homes for them. Until this issue is resolved, American Humane believes that all cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities should be spayed or neutered (i.e., sterilized). Such sterilization includes prepubertal spaying and neutering of kittens and puppies. American Humane supports the passage of laws and regulations mandating that all cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities be sterilized. It is less certain that community-wide mandatory spay/neuter laws are effective in addressing pet overpopulation. More information needs to be gathered on the benefit of prior legislative initiatives to determine long-term benefits.

American Humane encourages the veterinary profession to assist, whenever and however possible, in reducing the number of unwanted pets. This involvement includes supporting the neutering of cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities - thereby controlling the ongoing contribution of offspring to pet overpopulation. Veterinarians should continue to use their best judgment when recommending appropriate sterilization ages for individual cats and dogs owned by clients, especially those clients who are wellknown and likely to permit an unwanted pregnancy to occur prior to surgery. Short-term and long-term health risks for each animal should always be assessed. American Humane encourages research into the development and use of nonsurgical methods of sterilization.

American Humane also supports research to assess the causes for pet relinquishment. Prior research studies suggest that 7 to 20 percent of pets entering a home are no longer in that home six months after acquisition. These animals often end up at shelters, contributing to the pet "overpopulation" issue. Thus, American Humane wishes to understand individual, cultural and community issues that lead to pet relinquishment and to develop practical and effective intervention strategies.

What you can do to combat pet overpopulation:

1. If you are adding a pet to your family, make sure the pet comes from a legitimate shelter, nonprofit rescue group or a responsible, humane breeder.

2. Always spay and neuter your pets.

3. Consider all the responsibilities and consequences of pet ownership before deciding to get a pet and always make a lifetime commitment to your pet.

4. Educate your children, friends, family members and co-workers about pet overpopulation, adoption and the importance of spaying and neutering.

You can help stop generations of suffering. Have your female pet spayed and your male pet neutered. Don't allow them to breed and add to the pet overpopulation problem.

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Pet "overpopulation" encompasses two primary factors: (1) allowing cats and dogs to reproduce with little chance to find homes for the offspring and (2) pets being relinquished by owners who can no longer keep their animals, or who no longer...

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The Shelter Pet Project’s goal is to make shelters the first place potential adopters turn when looking to get a new pet.

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How many pets are in the United States? How many animals are in shelters?

Facts about U.S. Animal Shelters:

The terms "humane society" and "SPCA" are generic; shelters using those names are not part of the ASPCA or The Humane Society of the United States. Currently, no government institution or animal organization is responsible for tabulating national statistics for the animal protection movement. These are national estimates; the figures may vary from state to state.

Approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats. We estimate that the number of dogs and cats entering U.S. shelters annually has declined from approximately 7.2 million in 2011. The biggest decline was in dogs (from 3.9 million to 3.1 million).

Each year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized (390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats). The number of dogs and cats euthanized in U.S. shelters annually has declined from approximately 2.6 million in 2011. This decline can be partially explained by an increase in the percentage of animals adopted and an increase in the number of stray animals successfully returned to their owners.

Approximately 4.1 million shelter animals are adopted each year (2 million dogs and 2.1 million cats).

About 810,000 animals who enter shelters as strays are returned to their owners. Of those, 710,000 are dogs and 100,000 are cats.

*These estimates are based in part on Shelter Animals Count data and other known and estimated sources, 2019. These are national estimates based on data obtained from shelters and rescues; the figures may vary from state to state.
Facts about Pet Ownership in the U.S.:

It's estimated that 78 million dogs and 85.8 million cats are owned in the United States. Approximately 44% of all households in the United States have a dog, and 35% have a cat. (Source: American Pet Products Association 2015-2016 (APPA))

Approximately 40% of dog owners and 46% of cat owners learned about their pet through word of mouth. (Source: APPA)

According to the APPA, these are the most common sources from which primary methods cats and dogs are obtained as pets (Note: this information was based on a multiple response question, which results in the total % exceeding 100% individually for cats and dogs. In addition, the 'other' category includes all source categories that were reported by <10% of both dog and cat owners):

APPA reports that 34% of dogs are purchased from breeders, while 23% of dogs and 31% of cats are obtained from an animal shelter or humane society.

Around 27% of cats are acquired as strays, down from 35% in 2012. (Source: APPA)

According to the ASPCA's National Rehoming Survey, pet problems are the most common reason that owners rehome their pet, accounting for 47% of rehomed dogs and 42% of rehomed cats. Pet problems were defined as problematic behaviors, aggressive behaviors, grew larger than expected, or health problems owner couldn't handle.

The preceding data are ASPCA estimates unless otherwise indicated.
You may also wish to visit:

American Pet Products Association
https://www.americanpetproducts.org/

The National Council on Pet Population Study & Policy (NCPPSP)
https://theaawa.org/page/nationalcouncil

The American Veterinary Medical Association
https://www.avma.org/ (see U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics)

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How many pets are in the United States? How many animals are in shelters? Get the answers to these and other questions about pet statistics.

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We need your voice to advance animal-friendly laws and regulations! See how policy and legal work can help end cruelty and build a better world for all animals.

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Meet the Teen Animal Activist Who Took Two Shelter Dogs to Prom - Dogster

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Dogster is a publication where dog lovers come together to get the latest expert advice about dog behavior, health, news and entertainment.

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How to Help a Neighbor’s Neglected Animal

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It can be heartbreaking to see a neighbor’s animal suffering in a situation of neglect. Depending on the situation, there are various ways you can help the animal or animals involved.

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An animal shelter, by definition, is: an establishment, especially one supported by charitable contributions, that provides a temporary home for dogs, cats, and other animals that are offered for adoption. An establishment that temporarily provides a home until the animal is adoptable. Sounds good, right?
However, this definition is more in line with no kill animal shelters. These shelters will either keep animals as long as possible, or give them to some other organization that can attempt to adopt out the animals. They will do all in their power to find a great new home for animals that may have been homeless, abused, or a victim of hoarding. Through these types of organizations and charities, animals are given a second chance at life, love, and happiness.
Not only do the animals benefit, but those who adopt them do as well. They can receive some of the best animals and friends from places such as these, (as I know from experience.) While animals may come from any condition, if they are healthy, and great with people, even if it so happens to be as a result of many months or years of training, they will get another chance to be happy and to know love like they should.
Programs like these are great and can really help people in many conditions. There are many success stories out there that will make one want to go adopt every single animal from a shelter that they can, or at the very least, help them.
On the contrary, when comparing no kill shelters to ones without the same beliefs, the results often are not so 'successful.' These shelters may take in animals from the streets, and give them what they need, if only for a little amount of time depending upon their policies.
To clarify, there are some shelters that will let an animal stay for two weeks before euthanizing it. Others give only 3 days. According to research, some shelters may give an animal 3 days, then an additional 7, should the owner come looking for the animal. Meanwhile, other shelters may give the animals a few months, a few weeks, a few days, or even just an hour.
These particular shelters may have excuses, such as "we don't have enough room, we don't have enough money to keep them alive, or they aren't young or 'cute' enough and nobody will want to adopt them." While it may be true that there is no room for the animal or not enough money, the shelters could give the animals to a no kill shelter or an adoption organization.
I personally believe that all animals, no matter what age, as long as they are healthy and gentle, are "adoptable." The excuse that the animal is not young or cute enough has no support, seeing as many ages and kinds of animals are adopted all the time.
Animal shelters that do not have no kill policies don't give the animals enough time. It may take more than 3 days, 7 days, or even a couple of weeks for someone to come to the shelter. But the people coming to adopt are not to blame, because the shelter could put out fliers or notices that there are adoptable pets waiting to find their 'furever homes.'
Though some shelters may do this, and may even genuinely care about the animals, there are always those who just look at the animals as profit. Maybe they think keeping the animals alive is too much money or that there's less hassle with less animals, but clearly, the animals' best interest is not in mind, as it is at a no kill shelter.
Sure, maybe this is the first time in the animal's life that they've had shelter or food and water, but is it beneficial if the animal will not even get a fair chance at life? The animals don't know what's going on, and they may be scared from the past, traumatized, or extremely shy, but they haven't done anything at all to deserve to die.
So while not all shelters can 'afford' to keep the animals, they could find people who will foster the animals until adoption, or some other, positive alternative. Why, if an animal is not a harm to others, should it be killed without any choice? The animals can't speak for themselves. Their fates depend on us to be their voice. Are you up for the challenge? I know I am.

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Animal Shelters: another chance at life or death

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An animal shelter, by definition, is: an establishment, especially one supported by charitable contributions, that provides a temporary home for dogs, cats, and other animals that are offered for adoption. An establishment that temporarily provides a home until the animal is adoptable. Sounds good, right?

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Bianca of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, attended YEA Camp in 2010 at the age of 14. She has accomplished so much in the past year and a half for animals, we are blown away.

Right after YEA Camp, she started a school club called Hearts for Animals. Their first year, they raised over $1000 for their local animal shelter, participated in community beach clean-ups, and more. This year is their second year, and things have really picked up! She has recruited a lot of great club members, including her co-president whom she credits as helping make the club an even bigger success. Here are just some of the things Hearts for Animals has accomplished this school year:

A collection drive for items needed by the local animal shelter

A walk-a-thon to raise money for the shelter

The club hosts an "activism of the week" program, where Bianca educates members about animal-related issues and ways to take action to help them; she created a whole PowerPoint presentation on going vegetarian

Volunteering at the organization Cats In Need

Creating a campaign to help the shelter adopt out their black animals, which they have been having difficulty with

Starting Pennies for Paws, a fundraiser in which each class at her school donates money for the shelter

Engaging in a volunteer day once a month at the shelter

Planning and hosting, along with the school's environmental club and an animal club at another school, a beach cleanup in Huntington Beach to pick up trash that can harm marine animals!

Bianca says it's important for their club to be involved with their local animal shelter because they are one of the only groups helping.

According to Bianca, "I really think we our making an impact in our community! I have learned SO MUCH from this experience and even though next year will be my last year with the club, I believe that Hearts for Animals will continue to run at our school and do even bigger and better things, truly leaving a legacy. I know I've said this quite some times but I still want to really thank YEA. I still recount my week at camp as one of the best weeks of my life, and remember in detail what I learned and how great of an experience it was. The whole reason why I started Hearts for Animals is because you all inspired me and gave me the confidence to do so. I don't know where I would be without having gone through that experience!"

Aww, shucks. 🙂 Thanks, Bianca!

We are so proud and impressed with Bianca's accomplishments and commitment! Got any words of encouragement, thanks, or questions for her? Post them below.

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Activist Profile: Bianca V., Animal Advocate Extraordinaire - YEA Camp

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Bianca of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, attended YEA Camp in 2010 at the age of 14. She has accomplished so much in the past year and a half for animals, we are blown away. Right after YEA Camp, she started a school club called Hearts for Animals.

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New Zealand’s Faye Carey cares a LOT about pets. Here’s how she started Animal Re-home Waikato to help pets in need find the loving homes they deserve.

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Petside.com is a major supporter in the fight against animal cruelty and animal welfare is at the heart of what we do.

Our goal is to grow our site's awareness and donate through advertising to charitable organisations involved in ending the suffering to animals.

We want to support all animal lovers to do the very best for their pets. We believe that knowledge is key to keeping all animals safe and happy and so our mission is to ensure that we all know what to do. From caring for your own pet and understanding their behavior to wider animal welfare issues and protecting our precious wildlife, with the right guidance and advice we can all make a difference.

What is the Animal Liberation Front?

From animal experimentation and factory farming to research laboratories and the fur trade, the issue of animal abuse and exploitation has long been a thorny issue, with the direct action of many animal liberation groups making for some dramatic headlines. And at the forefront of the cause since the 1970s has been a notorious campaign group known as the ALF - or the Animal Liberation Front.

To read more about the ALF and keep up to date with latest news, please click here.

Originally formed from a small and passionate group of UK animal activists, ALF has grown into a worldwide network of anonymous individuals still active and committed to protecting animal rights today. Their use of direct action to highlight their cause - predominately through releasing animals as well as damage and destruction of property - has led to numerous criminal prosecutions over the years. However, their aim remains the same: to end animal abuse and exploitation.

Whether you agree or disagree with their actions, or have never heard of the ALF, here's what you need to know about the Animal Liberation Front.

The Animal Liberation Front is an animal rights group committed to ending the abuse of animals by carrying out direct action campaigns against the organizations they believe are the perpetrators of exploitation and cruelty. They believe that all animals have the right to live a life free of suffering and particularly target those who seek to exploit animals for financial gain.

Scientific laboratories, research institutions, fur farms and factory farms are just some of the types of organizations to be targeted by the ALF, often by destruction of property, animal rescue and undercover filming of the animal cruelty taking place.

The organizational set-up of the ALF reflects the clandestine nature of their direct action tactics and campaigns. The Animal Liberation Front has no hierarchy or leader, in fact the ALF prides itself on what it calls its model of 'leadership resistance'.

This model means there is no centralized organization or coordination; instead the Animal Liberation Front consists of lots of small, autonomous groups of people around the world who choose to undertake direct action in line with the ALF's original core guidelines:

1. To free animals from places of abuse and place them in good homes where they may live out their natural lives, free from suffering

2. To do damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals

3. To reveal the horror committed against animals behind locked doors, by performing non-violent actions and freeing of animals

4. To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal - human and non-human.

Due to the potential risk of their action being against the law, these groups or individuals work anonymously and there is no formal membership of the ALF. In short, individuals make the decision to act in the name of the Animal Liberation Front.

Direct action - the Animal Liberation Front focuses its attention on rescuing animals as well as causing financial loss to the animals' exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of their property. By doing so, ALF activists believe they are also working towards ending the 'property status of non-human animals'.

Since their formation in the early 1970s, the Animal Liberation Front has highlighted the unpalatable issue of animal exploitation, shining the light on the horrors of animal research and experimentation, the cruelty of factory and fur farming and the need for all animals to have protection and a life free of unnecessary suffering. Just some of ALF's direct action campaigns include releasing a film made from undercover footage of animal experimentation at a University of Pennsylvania laboratory, a highly publicized release of minks from an Oregon fur farm and the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign.

'All necessary precautions' - prominent amongst the Animal Liberation Front's guiding principles are that they are non-violent and that all necessary precautions should be taken against harming any animal - 'human or non-human'. However, they accept that their actions 'may be against the law' as their long-term goal is to force animal abuse organizations and companies out of business and expose 'the horror committed against animals behind locked doors'.

The ALF's commitment to non-violent action has been called into question on numerous occasions, with the actions of some of its activists seen as threatening and even harmful towards people. While no-one has been killed by ALF direct action, there have been recorded incidents of arson attacks and intimidation which has increasingly cast a long shadow over the organization and its aim to end animal abuse.

In 1991, the FBI named the Animal Liberation Front a domestic terrorist threat (it is considered as special interest extremism), followed by Department of Homeland Security in 2005. In the UK, the actions of the ALF are considered as examples of domestic extremism and is monitored by the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit.

However, PETA - a legal activist organization that campaigns for the ethical treatment of animals, believes that ALF and its actions have uncovered horrific animal cruelty that would have otherwise gone undetected.

"They have resulted in officials' filing of criminal charges against laboratories, the citing of experimenters for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, and, in some cases, the shutting down of abusive labs for good. Often ALF raids have been followed by widespread scientific condemnation of the practices occurring in the targeted labs." PETA.org

To read more about the ALF and keep up to date with latest news, please click here.

History of Animal Liberation Front

Since the 1970s, the Animal Liberation Front has been at the forefront of exposing animal exploitation and cruelty around the world. To understand the motivation of the Animal Liberation Front, it's important to understand where the ALF came from and the people who set it on the path of direct action in the name of animal rights.

We take a look at some of the key milestones in the history of the Animal Liberation Front:

The seeds of the Animal Liberation Front movement were sown back in 1963, when a British journalist was assigned to cover a stag hunt. After watching the hunters chase and kill a pregnant deer, he felt compelled to set up the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) in protest of what he had seen.

HSA groups started to spring up around the country, including one in Luton, formed by a law student called Ronnie Lee in 1972. Lee, and another activist, Cliff Goodman, felt that more militant direct action tactics were needed, so formed their own group, The Bands of Mercy.

Between 1973 and 1974, the Bands of Mercy embarked on a series of attacks on several animal testing research laboratories before completing its first act of animal liberation, taking guinea pigs from a Wiltshire farm.

In August 1974, Lee and Goodman went on trial for a raid on an Oxfordshire laboratory and given a prison sentence. On Lee's release in 1976, he was more focused than ever and renamed the Bands of Mercy as the Animal Liberation Front.

From the beginning, the ALF believed that animals should not be viewed as property and that science or industry had no right to assume ownership of animals in order to exploit them. As well as liberating animals from the research and factory farming industries, the activists also believed that sabotage by destroying property would seriously damage the companies financially and eventually lead to alternatives to the use of animals or see them close down.

With around 30 activists, the newly formed ALF went on to carry out 10 direct action campaigns against vivisectionists (companies and organizations involved in animal experimentation) in its first year. The Animal Liberation Front had arrived.

It was towards the end of the 1970s that the Animal Liberation Front started to spread overseas, with the first documented ALF-action in the US taking place in 1982 with a raid on an animal laboratory at Howard University. However, the FBI had been tracking ALF activity in the US as early as 1977.

It's also important to note that the 1970s saw a transformation in the philosophy of animal welfare. This included the publication of Peter Singer's influential book, Animal Liberation, which argued against the idea of 'speciesism', defined as discrimination against animals based on their non-human status. This period saw a shift from animal welfare to the concept of animal rights and the arrival of other key animal activism groups, including PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in 1982.

This shift also reinforced the ALF's belief that all animals had rights and that through their direct action campaigns, they were liberating animals, not stealing them, as they were not 'owned' in the first place.

In 1984, ALF activists broke into a laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and stole 60 hours of videotape footage from their head injury research program. The footage was handed over to PETA for editing into a film 'Unnecessary Fuss', which featured shocking footage of experiments on primates, and which ultimately led to the closure of the lab.

Throughout the 1980s, the Animal Liberation Front remained active on both sides of the Atlantic, but as the decade progressed, the ALF's firm grip on non-violent action started to slip, and not all its activists seemed to adhere to its guiding principle.

In 1984, the first food scare arrived, with the ALF claiming it had contaminated Mars Bars in UK stores in protest against tooth decay tests on monkeys. It later proved to be a hoax.

During the 1990s, the ALF continued with a host of high-profile direct actions, including a fire attack on a Michigan State University laboratory, attacks on the fur industry and the well-publicized releases of minks from fur farms in Oregon and Washington. The ALF also claimed responsibility for smashing the windows of the Bank of New York, in protest of its business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The 90s saw the Animal Liberation Front get involved in Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty, a high-profile campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridge, Europe's largest animal testing laboratory. One ALF activist was subsequently jailed for 12 years for planting homemade bombs on the doorsteps of businessmen linked to the laboratory.

In the UK, the ALF repeatedly vandalized and destroyed the construction site of an intended research lab for Oxford University, leading to the build being halted in 2004. Then, in 2006, ALF activists claimed responsibility for a firebomb attack on a home owned by a UCLA researcher. The bomb failed to ignite.

In its early years, where they limited their activity to removing animals, damaging property and exposing cruelty, the Animal Liberation Front had garnered sympathy and support from the public, largely due to their non-violent stance. But as their actions became more militant and individual members started to choose more violent ways to achieve its objectives, the ALF started to become more isolated.

In 1984, the Animal Liberation Front had been expelled from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisectionists (BUAV). And, by 2005, the Animal Liberation Front was on the watchlist of Homeland Security, having already been identified as a potential terrorist threat by the FBI.

The Animal Liberation Front Today

By the early 2000s, direct action campaign activity involving the Animal Liberation Front had begun to slow as support for their increasingly violent tactics in the name of animal rights started to dwindle. However, their original ethos, commitment and passion for animal rights remained. With animal rights and environmental issues now firmly on the global agenda and public sympathy for animal welfare at an all-time high, the Animal Liberation Front's drive for ending animal suffering and abuse has been embraced by a host of other charities and direct action organizations, including PETA.

And they are not alone - as there are ALF cells currently believed to be active in more than 20 countries around the world, continuing to champion the end of animal abuse and exploitation.

To read more about the ALF and keep up to date with latest news, please click here.

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Petside.com is a major supporter in the fight against animal cruelty and animal welfare is at the heart of what we do. Our goal is to grow our site's awareness and donate through advertising to charitable organisations involved in ending the suffering to animals. We want to support all animal lovers to do the very [...]

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Animal Homelessness Is a Community Challenge

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November 6-12 is National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. It’s a great time to get to know your local animal shelter and show them that you’re ready to become part of the solution.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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If you are already registered on our website, you can sign in by selecting your partner organization below, then entering your email address and password on the next screen.

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Hirsch created of the film "Bully" and The Bully Project, a social action campaign aimed at ending bullying in schools across America. He will speak Wednesday at the National Press Club in downtown D.C.
Why did you create this project?

I was bullied as a kid. And I became a filmmaker. Making the film "Bully" was something I had looked at many times. I was probably scared to make the film. After we produced it, we saw the film was really moving people and that is where the secondary tier of work began. I wanted to harness the moment and create the best tools we possibly could to allow people to use the film as a motivator and actually create safety in our schools.

What is the project about?

It's is very much like an experiment. It's about how we can leverage the power of a film that has traction, that brings people to a place where they want to raise their hand and say, "What can I do?"

How do you create that kind of leverage?

It's interesting because what we are celebrating in part on Capitol Hill on Wednesday is that we met and surpassed our goal of getting a million kids to see the film.

Beyond the film, how does the project work?

We have created a set of tools that go with it -- lessons that are created for the student that sees the film. It's using the film as a tool for educators, the people who are reaching out for it and saying we want to do that in our community and bring it to our school.

What do you believe is behind the uptick in bullying?

It has a lot to do with the broader question of school climate and school culture... Schools have gotten very focused on results and numerical evaluation based on testing. And what I see has gotten lost is increasing the social and emotional connections between students and staff. Schools need to teach kids empathy and how to process relationships.

What can a school do to reduce bullying?

The Bully Project includes a toolbox that is a roadmap for creating change. The first thing we encourage people to do is survey the school climate and school culture and really determine how many students feel connected to the school. They should determine what are the areas in student daily life that feel safe and unsafe.

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The 3-Minute Interview: Lee Hirsch, anti-bullying activist

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Hirsch created of the film "Bully" and The Bully Project, a social action campaign aimed at ending bullying in schools across America. He will speak Wednesday at the National Press Club in downtown D.C. Why did you create this project? I was bullied as a kid. And I became a filmmaker.

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Browse Educational Resources | Education.com

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Browse Educational Resources. Award winning educational materials designed to help kids succeed. Start for free now!

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Bully Official Trailer #1 - Weinstein Company Movie (2012) HD

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Easy to Use. Hard to Put Down.
With Magazines+, you get fresh, high-interest content delivered all year long-in print, online or both. Every single story, video and activity is designed to hook your students and keep them engaged. And because Magazines+ complements your curriculum, it's easy to implement during any part of the school day!

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Scholastic Classroom & News Magazines | Subscribe Now!

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Easy to Use. Hard to Put Down. With Magazines+, you get fresh, high-interest content delivered all year long-in print, online or both. Every single story, video and activity is designed to hook your students and keep them engaged. And because Magazines+ complements your curriculum, it's easy to implement during any part of the school day!

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Life after Bully: Teenage star of hit documentary finally escapes his tormentors... and finds happiness in new school

Alex Libby's life has changed since he featured in the hit anti-bullying documentary, Bully.

The highschool freshman now has other students come up and hug him in the corridors, has good friends and gets on well with his teachers.

The unlikely fame has potentially saved him from becoming one of two thousand American teenagers who have committed suicide because of relentless aggression from their peers.

Some 13million schoolchildren in the U.S. are victims of bullying, with 3million absent from class each month because they cannot cope with the torment.

The award-winning documentary by Lee Hirsh follows five kids and families over the course of a school year, including two families who have lost children to suicide because of bullying.

Alex agreed to take part in Bully in the hope that his persecutors would stop tormenting him.

He didn't realise that the brave act would bring him national notoriety, a trip to the White House and a chat with a beauty pageant winner.

Much of the bullying took place on the school bus, on which Kim Lockwood, assistant principal of East Middle School in Sioux City, Iowa, insisted the kids were 'as good as gold'.

Alex knew different.

'Most of the kids on that bus, I knew from elementary school, and we were good friends then,' he said in the documentary.

'But then in middle school, everything changes, and it's all about popularity and who dresses the best and who's the most athletic and who has the best hair. I was not the kid with the best hair.'

The bullies in Iowa called him 'fishface'. They threatened to break his bones, sexually assault him and kill him.

Perhaps, more crucially, the bullies scared away other kids who were his genuine buddies.

'I craved friends. I didn't have any friends. That was all I wanted, some friendship, someone to come over, someone to lift me back up when I'm knocked down. I didn't have that, he said.

However, today things have changed dramatically, reports the Des Moines Register .

A move to a new school, Edmond Memorial School in Oklahoma, has broken the cycle of bullying but Alex is also enjoying his unlikely fame and has become a spokesperson for the bullying cause.

He wears a T-shirt that says, 'I stand for the silent'.

Alex is not the only one: the documentary has already been seen by over 90,000 American schoolchildren and has 97,000 'likes' on its Facebook page .

Watch the video:

Watch the documentary trailer:

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Life after Bully: Teenage star of hit documentary finally escapes his tormentors... and finds happiness in new school

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Alex Libby's life has changed since he featured in the hit anti-bullying documentary, Bully. The highschool freshman now has other students come up and hug him in the corridors, has good friends and gets on well with his teachers.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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With Magazines+, you get fresh, high-interest content delivered all year long-in print, online or both. Every single story, video and activity is designed to hook your students and keep them engaged. And because Magazines+ complements your curriculum, it's easy to implement during any part of the school day!

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Scholastic Classroom & News Magazines | Subscribe Now!

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With Magazines+, you get fresh, high-interest content delivered all year long-in print, online or both. Every single story, video and activity is designed to hook your students and keep them engaged. And because Magazines+ complements your curriculum, it's easy to implement during any part of the school day!

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it, and in many cases because unscrupulous adults take advantage of their vulnerability. It is also due to inadequacies and weaknesses in national educational systems. It is deeply ingrained in cultural and social attitudes and traditions.

Poverty is certainly the greatest single force driving children into the workplace. Income from a child's work is felt to be crucial for his/her own survival or for that of the household.

Popular perceptions and local customs and traditions (even when they are well-intended) also play an important part, such as:

The view that work is good for the character-building and skill development of children;

The tradition that children are expected to follow in their parents' footsteps in a particular trade, and to learn and practice that trade at a very early age;

Traditions that push poor families into indebting themselves heavily for social occasions or religious events, then relying on their children's work to pay off the debt. The phenomenon of bonded labour, recognized as one of the worst forms of child labour, is still widespread largely because of the vulnerability of poor families to such pressures;

The widely held view that girl children are less in need of education than boys, which leads to them being taken out of school at an early age and placed in work at home, or sold into domestic employment or sex work.

Child labour may be so deeply ingrained in local customs and habits that neither the parents nor the children themselves realize that it is against the interests of children and illegal;

Children from large families are more likely to be at work than those from small families, simply because the parents' income is quite insufficient to support a large family.

The availability and quality of schooling is among the most important factors:

many communities do not possess adequate school facilities;

even where schools exist the education provided is often not perceived by children or their parents to be a viable alternative to work. For many families, schooling is simply unaffordable. Even when it is "free" it involves a perceived opportunity cost of the income foregone when a child is at school rather than at work;

the education provided is frequently of poor quality, and/or perceived by the parents and the children themselves to be irrelevant to local needs and conditions. It is hardly surprising therefore that they see no point in attending school;

traditional views prevail that girls are better prepared for adult life by sending them to work than by investing in their education;

as a result of the above factors, vast numbers of children enter early into the unskilled labour market. They are frequently illiterate and remain so throughout their lives, and they lack the basic educational grounding which would enable them to acquire skills and to improve their prospects for a decent adult working life.

Families themselves are a major factor. Large numbers of children are unpaid workers in family enterprises (farms, informal sector workshops, etc.), which depend on family labour in order to survive. Many national laws and regulations, as well as international standards like Convention No. 138, allow exceptions in such cases. However, even in family enterprises, children can be exposed to serious risks to their health and safety.

According to the experts, the main reasons for the emergence of child labour in bigger cities are unhealthy family life and economic deprivation. Families strained by financial difficulties cannot cope with the increasing demands of their children and sometimes even fail to provide them with adequate nutrition. This appears to be the main reason children look for their own sources of income. In socially disadvantaged, alcoholic or morally bankrupt families, pecuniary challenges are often coupled with destructive dynamics in the relationships. These factors combine to spur children into the street, temporarily or permanently, leading them to a vagrant existence, required too early to make independent decisions. Economic hardships and family dysfunction can therefore be named as the main causes of child labour. Another important cause mentioned by the experts is the overall social and economic situation in the country.

According to the experts, the main reasons for the emergence of child labour in bigger cities are unhealthy family life and economic deprivation. Families strained by financial difficulties cannot cope with the increasing demands of their children and sometimes even fail to provide them with adequate nutrition. This appears to be the main reason children look for their own sources of income. In socially disadvantaged, alcoholic or morally bankrupt families, pecuniary challenges are often coupled with destructive dynamics in the relationships. These factors combine to spur children into the street, temporarily or permanently, leading them to a vagrant existence, required too early to make independent decisions. Economic hardships and family dysfunction can therefore be named as the main causes of child labour. Another important cause mentioned by the experts is the overall social and economic situation in the country.

Any diagnosis has to begin by recognizing the complexity of the problem. Legislators and policy-makers have to beware of oversimplified explanations for the existence of child labour.

For instance:

there is a widely held belief that there is nothing much that can be done to combat child labour Р that it is a result and a manifestation of poverty and can only be eliminated when poverty itself has been eliminated;

according to another school of thought, child labour only exists because unscrupulous adults exploit children in order to make quick profits and to gain an unfair advantage over competitors. All that needs to be done, according to this school of thought, is to bring the full force of the law against the offenders and to send the children back to school where they belong.

The basis of the elimination of the worst forms of child labour within a relatively short time-frame must be legislation, which keeps the total elimination of child labour as the ultimate goal of policy, but which explicitly identifies and prohibits the worst forms of child labour to be eliminated as a matter of priority. Such legislation must also provide adequate sanctions for violators and adequate compensation for victims, and be rigorously and impartially enforced.
For all these reasons, even when it has been declared illegal, child labour continues to be tolerated and accepted as the natural order of things Р and much of it is invisible. It is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference and apathy. But that wall is beginning to crumble. The process of globalization and the development of modern means of communication have made the plight of working children a major issue on the agenda of the international community.

The growing international concern with the problem of child labour, reflected by these and other events, has been the result of a number of developments, notably:

The trend towards greater liberalization of trade and capital movements. This has brought about increasingly vocal demands that children should not be victims of the increased competition among countries and firms struggling to obtain a comparative advantage in world markets through the cheap and docile labour of children.

Greater transparency in the world economy and the abolition of blocs after the end of the Cold War.

The indignation of consumers at the thought that the goods they purchase may have been produced in abusive conditions, including child labour; and

The publicity given to the commercial sexual exploitation of children, particularly children in prostitution and pornography and sex tourism.

At the same time it has resulted in a fuller understanding of the complex causes of child labour, and in particular the fact that it is deeply rooted in poverty, in the lack or inadequacy of schooling and in social and cultural traditions and structures. Its elimination cannot be achieved merely by a stroke of the legislator's pen, but is recognized to be a very long-term goal. However, growing concern has emerged that certain situations of child labour are so grave and inhumane that they can no longer be tolerated.
Thus a consensus emerged in the 1990s that the highest priority should be given to eliminating the worst forms of child labour, that visible results should be achieved within a short time-frame rather than in some indefinite future, and that a concerted programme of action should be launched at the national and international levels in order to achieve rapid results.

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Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it, and in many cases because unscrupulous adults take advantage of their vulnerability. It is also due to inadequacies and weaknesses in national educational systems. It is deeply ingrained in cultural and social attitudes and traditions.

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Child labor, as defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO), is "work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development." The persistence of child labor is one of the biggest obstacles to human rights globally. Child Labor perpetuates poverty by depriving children of education and leaving them without the skills needed to secure the future of themselves and their communities. This article sheds light on key child labor facts and the countries where child labor prevails.

Top 10 Child Labor Facts

1. Much of Indonesia's tobacco is produced by thousands of children as young as eight. Tobacco cultivation is extremely labor intensive and children are often subjected to serious health risks including nicotine poisoning.

2. According to the ILO, 168 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor as of 2013.

3. Of these 168 million children, 85 million are engaged in what the ILO deems "hazardous work."

4. According to a study conducted by the ILO in 2004, the benefits of eradicating child labor would "outweigh costs by nearly six to one."

5. The sub-Saharan African region has the second highest number of child laborers in the world; about 59 million in 2012. According to the Pew Research Center, 21.4 percent of children aged five to 17 are involved in child labor while 10.4 percent are engaged in hazardous work.

6. Agriculture accounts for 60 percent of child labor according to the ILO.

7. Only one out of five children involved in child labor is paid for their work.

8. The majority of children in child labor perform unpaid family work.

9. The 10 countries that strategic consulting firm Maplecroft listed as the worst countries for child labor in 2012 were: Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi and Zimbabwe.

10. About 60 percent of children in Ethiopia are engaged in some form of child labor. Many of these children work in the mining industry; an industry that poses some of the biggest dangers for child laborers.

Many parents in impoverished countries push their children into work out of necessity, unable to sustain their families on their own incomes.

One of the best ways to combat child labor is to provide fair wages and safe working conditions for parents so that they can provide for their families without being forced to depend on their children. To fight against child labor is the fight against global poverty.

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10 Shocking Child Labor Facts - The Borgen Project

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Here are 10 child labor facts about the perpetuating cycle of poverty that results from depriving children of an education. These shocking facts about child labor demonstrate the detrimental effects of the practice on the countries which it plagues.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Already hit with sagging exports, Pakistani carpet dealers say they have lost more sales to Western buyers since the killing of a young activist who spoke out against child labor.

The death of Iqbal Masih, 12, received worldwide publicity after a group that is fighting child labor blamed carpet industry owners. But residents of his village later said Iqbal was slain in a fight with a farm worker, and Pakistan's leading human rights group says there is no evidence implicating the industry.

Iqbal's case attracted attention because he had been to Sweden and the United States to speak at conferences denouncing child labor. He had worked as a carpet weaver from age 4 to 10.

Imran Malik, vice chairman of the Pakistan Carpet and Manufacturers and Exporters Association, estimates $10 million worth of orders have been lost since the April 16 shooting.

"Carpets that were once considered a piece of art are now looked upon as if the blood of children has been used to make them," Malik said.

*

The carpet industry, one of the biggest exporters in this impoverished country, was facing lean times even before Iqbal's death. Exports fell from $183 million in 1992 to $149 million last year, the government says.

The United States, the largest importer of Pakistani carpets, purchased $42 million worth last year, down from $55 million two years earlier.

"With this controversy, our wholesale carpet buyers don't want to take the risk and buy Pakistani carpets," said Abdul Latif Malik, a leading Lahore carpet dealer who says he has lost at least $300,000 in sales since Iqbal's death. He is no relation to the vice chairman of the carpet association.

Usman Ashraf of Usman Carpet House in Lahore said he has lost $80,000 in sales since mid-April. "It is all related to the young boy's death," he said.

Both dealers said Western buyers had contacted them to say they would not be making further purchases due to the furor over the killing.

But in New York, carpet dealers contacted by the Associated Press said they had seen no backlash against Pakistani carpets since Iqbal's death, although one said reports of child labor overseas had sparked questions from a few customers.

"There isn't a major scare that I'm aware of, but all carpets have not been selling as well because of the downturn in the economy," said Michael Harounian, a partner in the New York-based Harounian Imports.

Harounian and Larry Feldman, president of the Rug Warehouse in New York, both said they try to ensure they do no business with carpet makers who use child labor.

*

Anti-Slavery International, a British-based group that campaigns against forced labor, estimates carpet makers employ about 500,000 children under 14 years old in Pakistan, 300,000 in India and 110,000 in Nepal.

Children are prized by carpet makers because their tiny fingers make small, tight knots, the sign of a truly fine carpet.

Hand-knotted carpets also are made in Iran, China, Afghanistan, Morocco, Turkey, Peru and some former Soviet states.

"Apart from the former Soviet Union, where we have no information, we have information to suggest that child labor is used to some extent in all these countries," said David Ould, spokesman for Anti-Slavery International.

It was the campaign against child labor that drew attention to Iqbal's killing.

The Bonded Labor Liberation Front, a private group in Pakistan, blamed the slaying on Pakistan's "carpet mafia," although it provided no evidence.

An AP reporter who visited Iqbal's village outside Lahore was told by numerous residents that the youth was shot by a farm worker after a petty dispute. Iqbal's cousin, who was wounded in the shooting, told the same story to police, who have arrested the farm worker.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country's most respected human rights group, said it found no evidence tying the carpet industry to Iqbal's death.

In dirt-poor villages where there are not enough schools, children are routinely sent out to find work in mills, brickyards and garages before they reach their 10th birthday.

The conditions are often filthy and dangerous and the daily pay can be as little as one rupee--the equivalent of three cents. But in such an impoverished region, many people accept child labor as normal, including the children.

"Children themselves say, 'We're earning a living.' The family says they need the money," said Shireen Khan, a spokeswoman in Islamabad for the International Labor Organization, a United Nations group.

Pakistan passed legislation in 1992 that says children under 14 are not allowed to work, but the law is not enforced.

If Pakistan does not show some progress, it could lose preferential tariffs on its carpet imports into the United States, Commerce Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said.

"It's like a sword dangling over our head," he said.

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Young Activist's Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Sales : Trade: Exports to West have diminished even though producers haven't been linked to death of 12-year-old who fought child labor.

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Already hit with sagging exports, Pakistani carpet dealers say they have lost more sales to Western buyers since the killing of a young activist who spoke out against child labor.

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Sea turtles are vulnerable to ocean pollution at all stages of life, from eggs to hatchlings to juveniles to adults. Pollutants include things like toxic metals, pcb's, petroleum products, and agricultural and industrial runoff of contaminants such as fertilizers, chemicals, nutrients, and untreated waste. Pollutants may cause immediate harm to sea turtles through direct contact or can build up in tissues over time and lead to immunosuppression resulting in disease and death.

Degradation of sea turtle habitat from pollution also poses a threat and can occur over large areas. Sea turtle habitat overlaps with areas most likely to be affected by offshore oil exploration and production. Petroleum pollution occurs from intentional discharge from vessels, vessel groundings, offshore oil exploration and production, transport of oil products, spills, and runoff of oil from land based sources.

Oil from spills far offshore concentrate along convergence zones (where currents meet) which is are important areas for young turtle development. Oil from spills offshore also washes up on beaches where it degrades nesting habitat, and can impact nests, nesting females, and hatchlings making their way to the water.

Sea turtles are also affected by ingesting food contaminated by oil or tar balls. Tar balls form when crude oil floating in the water degrades. A large percentage of dead hatchlings whose stomach contents have been examined have ingested tar balls.

Fibropapillomas

This disease is a threat to sea turtle populations worldwide. Also known as "FP", this disease causes cauliflower-shaped tumors on external soft parts and internal organs of a sea turtle. The exact cause of FP is still unknown, however, researchers believe there is a link to ocean pollution. External FP tumors can create drag and slow sea turtles down making them more vulnerable to predation and collisions with boats.

Tumors around the eyes can obscure vision and eventually cause blindness, and tumors around the mouth can impair breathing and feeding. In some areas, many stranded and dead turtles have FP tumors. Research is still being done to determine the exact cause and transmission of this disease.

FP was first seen in the 1930's in green turtles in the Florida Keys. In Hawaii, FP was not seen until the late 50's. It was first only observed in isolated areas but now occurs worldwide and in other species including loggerheads, Kemp's and olive ridleys, and flatbacks. Over 50% of green turtles found in Florida's Indian River are afflicted.

ocean pollution & sea turtles

Toxic metals may concentrate in the liver and kidneys of sea turtles. Toxins like mercury also pose a threat to human health.

Chronic exposure to pollutants makes sea turtles susceptible to disease and death. Chronically ill turtles are also more vulnerable to predation and collisions with boats.

PCB's, or polychlorinated biphenyl's, despite being banned from production in the U.S. in 1979, are still found in the environment, and in materials produced prior to the ban. Organisms that ingest these chemicals may suffer from depressed immune systems, illness, disease, and impaired reproduction. Researchers have found PCB's in sea turtle eggs.

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Sea turtles are vulnerable to ocean pollution at all stages of life, from eggs to hatchlings to juveniles to adults. Pollutants include things like toxic metals, pcb's, petroleum products, and agricultural and industrial runoff of contaminants such as fertilizers, chemicals, nutrients, and untreated waste.

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Young people have a unique relationship with the environment: They are often the first affected when something goes wrong, yet the least represented when decisions are made.

They, more than any other generation, have been raised to feel a responsibility toward the environment. And that's important because they will be the first generation in charge of correcting the problems caused by the widespread pollution of the atmosphere and rampant misappropriation of natural resources.

Youth today feel the "clock is ticking in terms of the amount of time we have to deal with the major issues like clean air, clean water and global warming," says Sharon Smith, program director of Brower New Leaders at the Earth Island Institute, a support group for youth environmental campaigns and initiatives.
Growth in activism
Smith has seen firsthand the growth in environmental activism. "I graduated from college in 1999, and right in my first year out of college I went to an eco conference, which at that time was held in the Northeast. It was one of the largest environmental youth conferences held to date, and it had about a thousand people."

Contrast that with a 2009 conference that drew 12,000 young people from all 50 states, she said. "You can really see the growth of the environmental movement even over the past decade by looking at these conferences and the trainings designed and led and initiated by young people."

Canon Envirothon has seen similar growth in youth activism. A nonprofit specializing in the delivery of environmental education for high school students, the program has grown from three states in 1988 to 54 states and provinces in North America today.

Young people are "looking for avenues where they can make a difference and become knowledgeable, and then they can take and share that knowledge and experience," said Clay Burns, executive director of Canon Envirothon in Mississippi. They need to be "willing and prepared to work toward achieving and maintaining a balance between the quality of life and the quality of the environment."
Raising new leaders
But an increase in youth activism is not enough to stave off environmental peril - we need new ideas and new leaders, according to Eban Goodstein, economics professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., and co-director of the 2009 National Teach-In on Global Warming, a nationwide network of teachers at all educational levels that, on Feb. 5, engaged more than a million Americans in a "solutions-driven dialogue."

Eban says the U.S. must act aggressively in the next year or so to reduce global- warming pollution and invest in clean energy technologies or "you guys are going to be looking at a very different world in 2050," when the world will be 3 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher.

"To put that number in perspective, during the last Ice Age, it was only nine degrees Fahrenheit colder than it is on average today," he explained.

Goodstein says youth need to move beyond being the front lines of environmental activism to being the visionaries. Both the Brower New Leaders and Canon Envirothon have devoted more than two decades training them to do just that.

Earth Island Initiative was founded in 1982 by renowned environmentalist David Brower to support young people who have new strategies for saving the earth. In 2000, the organization started the Brower Youth Awards, which honor six youth ages 13 to 23 each year for their leadership and activism with a gala ceremony, campout and $3,000 prize.

"We felt like young people so often are sort of the workhorses of these campaigns and aren't always recognized, aren't always supported at a critical time in the development of their careers, in the development of their activism," Smith said.

The Canon Envirothon also honors young environmentalists in a yearly competition that engages more than 500,000 high school students throughout North America. The Envirothon works in partnership with local conservation districts, forestry associations, educators and natural resource agencies to organize and conduct competitions on the local, regional, and state and/or provincial level. This year's hands-on problem-solving competition is Aug. 2-6 at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where local finalists will compete for recognition, scholarships, and prizes.
Issues addressed
While recycling clubs abound at all age levels, more and more youth are expanding their efforts in other directions. In Massachusetts, young people involved in Gardening in the Community promote organic gardening and bicycle use. In Florida, a young man developed an interactive curriculum to educate youth about the plight of loggerhead turtles. In California, youth helped pass a bill requiring cosmetic companies to alert the Department of Health if their products contain carcinogens.

These are just a few examples. Youth across the country are cleaning up local wetlands, shutting down toxic waste sites, promoting clean energy and combating landfills. They have educated their peers, parents and the public on carbon emissions, reusable goods and conservation of resources.

Brower New Leaders have dealt with many such issues, and the Earth Island Institute currently oversees 60 projects, ranging from "Project Coyote" to the "Sacred Land Film Project," in 26 countries worldwide.

Students involved in Canon Envirothon pay special attention to natural resources, specifically those related to soils and land use, aquatic ecology, forestry and wildlife.

"Conservation is the big thing that we're involved in," Burns said, explaining that such work is more grassroots, and thus a more viable venue for youth activism.

And while most youth activism is local, many are entering the political realm to effect long-lasting change.

"There's a recognition that this is a time when we need major action from government if we're going to sort of lay the foundation and give you guys the tools that you're going to need to transform the world," Goodstein said.
New worldview coming?
Goodstein envisions a day soon when people automatically think about the environmental impact of their actions before they act. "We'll move on to a phase where we just sort of naturally mimic nature and create things that are in harmony with nature and don't produce waste and pollution."

Smith shares his optimism because she's seen the changes enacted by the youth involved in her program. "Just this year we were looking at the past 10 years of awardees, and at least 87 percent of our award recipients are still in leadership roles in the environmental movement. So it's a great sign that these young folks were committed when they applied to do this work and that hopefully the support we provided ensured they could stay committed and rise as leaders," she said.

The presidency of Barack Obama gives more reasons for hope. "It's rejuvenated the environmental movement in a number of ways," Smith said. "People have been really hitting their heads against the wall for eight years trying to push forward environmental initiatives."
Click here to read these Y-Press profiles:
Grind for the Green, San Francisco, CA
Urban Roots, East Austin, TX
West Oakland Urban Students Uprising against Pollution, Oakland, CA
Click here to read how students at two high schools are recycling and promoting environmentalism.

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Researchers from the United Negro College Fund went to West Virginia last year and asked 62 high school dropouts in the federal Job Corps program a simple, open-ended question. ¨What was it about school,¨ they wanted to know, ¨that caused you to quit?¨

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Like a lot of boys, Clay McMullen always enjoyed fishing and rock-climbing around his home in Geauga County's Chester Township.

But starting about a half-dozen years ago, at age 11, Clay began worrying about the environment so much that he started a crusade to make a difference.

Since then, Clay, now 17, has won nearly 50 grants totaling $180,000 from organizations ranging from Walt Disney Co. to the Environmental Protection Agency to Sea World.

Along the way, the West Geauga High School senior also helped get a state law passed last year that essentially guarantees that Ohio elementary students will be taught about wetlands when they learn about the state symbols.

More heroes

Every year The Plain Dealer highlights people in Greater Cleveland who saw a need and stepped up to answer it -- sometimes risking injury to save lives, sometimes risking time and effort to make a change in the community. Here are the heroes of the past three years and a link to all of this year's stories.

Clay'sprojects include building nesting landings for osprey (an endangered bird), starting nature clubs for students in the West Geauga district's two elementary schools, planting vegetable gardens and courtyards at his middle school and high school, and getting emission-control devices installed on nearly two dozen buses in the school district.

He estimates that he has spent 2,000 hours on environmental causes since the seventh grade.

"It's worth it. I want these natural resources to be preserved," he said. "I want my kids to have the same natural resources that I had. I want my grandkids to have them, too.

"Whatever amount of work I have to do, it's completely worth it," he said.

Clay's mom, Irene, recalls that hebegged to go on a bird-watching excursion when he was in the fifth grade.

"It was so funny. Everyone else was retired," she said, "but Clay was fascinated." Among the topics: The endangered osprey -- a fish-eating bird with a 6-foot wingspan.

The grant mania set in a year later in 2005, after he learned that 90 percent of Ohio's wetlands have been destroyed in the last 100 years. Ospreys rely on wetlands.

Clay got the idea to build osprey nesting platforms, which sit on 50-foot-high poles in wetland areas, and his mom took him to Home Depot. Clay asked the manager if he could help out with the materials, which would have cost about $150. The manager told Clay that if he wrote a letter explaining the project, Home Depot would donate the materials. The rest is history.

Mike Sustin, an environmental-science teacher at West Geauga High School, recalled that Clay next started researching online where he could get grants to build more nesting platforms, and found an application from Disney.

Clay was awarded $1,000 from Disney to build the platforms.

"The projects just got bigger after that," Irene McMullen said. "People began to call him. So it just kind of snowballed."

Clay's biggest grant was a $64,000 prize from the EPA to get diesel multistage filters installed on the schooldistrict's buses. "The amount of particulate from those buses is pretty alarming," he said.

He also got the school board to adopt a "West G is Idle Free" policy that prohibits idling in the parking lot for more than 30 seconds.

What about parents waiting to pick up their kids on cold days? Clay helped secure a grant last year to buy green micro-fleece blankets to distribute to people waiting in cold cars.

Sustin considers Clay's slickest achievement to be the five-year quest he undertook with a few of his environmentally minded friends to ensure that students statewide would learn about and appreciate wetlands.

They persuaded the Ohio legislatureto name the spotted salamander, which lives in wetlands, as the state's official amphibian -- guaranteeing that wetlands are part of every fourth-grade science class.

"That was a great strategy," Sustin said. "As a 20-year educator, I don't know that I could have come up with that idea."

While a kid who's extremely science-minded and has a grade point average above 4.0 could be considered a little nerdy, Clay is one of the most popular students, said Principal David Toth.

As he prepares to leave for college next year, Clay is training younger students to continue his environmental work.

"I think we can provide an example to show that you can be active and try to contribute and make a difference," he said.

Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tmurray@plaind.com, 216-999-6315

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Clay McMullen, teen passionate about saving the environment: Community Heroes 2011 (video)

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Like a lot of boys, Clay McMullen always enjoyed fishing and rock-climbing around his home in Geauga County's Chester Township. But starting about a half-dozen years ago, at age 11, Clay began worrying about the environment so much that he started a crusade to make a difference.

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Kelsey Juliana is proof that you're never too young or too busy to save the planet.
The 18-year-old environmentalist activist is a co-plaintiff for the Oregon TRUST (a nonprofit fighting climate change for future generations), who is suing the state of Oregon "to take a more aggressive stance against the carbon emissions warming the earth and destroying the environment." It's a cause she's been fighting for since the tender age of 15.
The impressive teen - who is also walking across America to bring awareness to global warming - recently sat down with journalist Bill Moyers on his show. The host marveled that when most kids her age are reading "The Hunger Games," this young lady is delving into legal briefs about public doctrine.
During a poignant portion of the interview at the 4:30 mark below, Moyers asks, "Do some of your friends in high school think you're weird [for your activism]?"
Juliana responds, "No. They seem to all support me but not join me, which is almost worse than not supporting me, you know, because they get it. And they don't do anything."
MORE: What Happens When a 13-Year-Old Girl Takes on an Oil Company?
What she says is completely true. Thanks to the proliferation of smart phones and social media, America's youth is probably more informed about worldly issues than ever (just think of the virality of #BringBackOurGirls or the ALS #IceBucketChallenge). And while using a hashtag to promote a cause certainly helps, ultimately, actions speak much louder.
With warmer temperatures, rising sea levels and toxic air, we cannot afford to stand idle. Especially, the people who will be inheriting the earth.
As Juliana says, "I think that's so important that people my age really get [that] into their heads. As a younger person, I have everything to gain from taking action and everything to lose from not... It's important that youth are the ones who are standing up because of the fact that we do have so much to lose."

DON'T MISS: When it Comes to the Planet, Children (Not the Government) Really Are the Future

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This Teen Activist Is Suing the Government Over Climate Change

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Skip to content Kelsey Juliana is proof that you're never too young or too busy to save the planet. The 18-year-old environmentalist activist is a co-plaintiff for the Oregon TRUST (a nonprofit fighting climate change for future generations), who is suing the state of Oregon "to take a more aggressive stance against the carbon emissions warming the earth and destroying the environment."

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Find the best eco-friendly advice for parenting infants to teens, plus tips on pregnancy, activities, family dynamics, and environmental education.

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Global Campaign For Education United States Chapter

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Worldwide, 132 million girls are out of school (2016). Of that 132 million, 34.3 million girls are of primary school age. Girls are more likely to have to stay at home and tend to younger siblings and other household chores, and 1 in 3 girls in the developing world are married before the age of 18. Ultimately, their earnings are often tied to men--from fathers, to brothers, to husbands to sons.

Even though they are marginalized throughout the world, investing in women and girls makes the difference. It is estimated that if every girl worldwide received 12 years of quality education, lifetime earnings for women could increase by US$15 trillion. One additional school year can increase a woman's earnings by 10% to 20% toward her future annual income, and adults girls are more likely to invest a far larger percentage of her income back into her family.

By investing in girls you are investing in their future, their family's future and their country's future.
More resources on girls' education:
12 Years of Quality Education for All Girls: A Commonwealth Perspective (2019), The University of Cambridge

Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls Report (2018), The World Bank, Global Partnership for Education
Gender and EFA 2000-2015 Achievements and Challenges EFA Global Monitoring Report
Gender Education Monitoring Report Gender Review 2018, United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), UNESCO

Evidence Review: Mitigating threats to girls' education in conflict affected contexts - current practice, The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), Overseas Development Initiative (ODI)

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Girls' Education | Global Campaign For Education United States Chapter

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Girls around the world are often left out of the conversation. In 2000, girls accounted for nearly two thirds of children out of school. Now it stands at half and work is continuing.

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eing a young woman growing up in a rural community in Fiji has always been a challenge. How I view this challenge has changed since I became a part of Roshika Deo - Be the Change, a campaign for equal representation, equal rights and treatment, equal access to basic necessities.

Since we women, youth and children represent more than half of the country's population, we believe we have the right to be heard and have a say in everything that concerns us. That is what I am fighting for.

In my community girls are seen as fragile and we do not have a say in village meetings. When we speak, we are growled at for speaking up and told to be a "girl" and to sit quietly and listen to elders. Also when a teenage girl is pregnant she is pointed at and not the other party - she is driven out of school while the guy walks about freely.

The main challenges faced by girls in my community is that they don't have options or second chances. Once they fail school they have no other option but to stay home and help out with the household chores. Also they are not motivated by their parents.

I want to change the mindset of young girls to help them see that they can achieve so much, even after they drop out of school. Their lives do not always have to revolve around their home and domestic duties. I want them to realise that their voice is as important as their elders.

Biggest challenge: The lack of co-operation from the girls themselves because they adhere more to what they are told rather than what they want.

Proudest moment: Seeing young men join our group to fight for equality.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Global Development Professionals Network

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eing a young woman growing up in a rural community in Fiji has always been a challenge. How I view this challenge has changed since I became a part of Roshika Deo - Be the Change, a campaign for equal representation, equal rights and treatment, equal access to basic necessities.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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I was born and raised in Kathmandu. My parents moved to the capital from a village after they got married. Although they didn't get a chance to study, they made sure that my sister and I got the opportunity.

My grandmother wanted a grandson from my father. She was disappointed when I was born because I was the second child and they expected a son. Though my father was her eldest son, she never showed love towards us because she expected a grandson. I felt sad about this. However later I realised that this is not just my story; there are a lot of people who have faced gender inequality.

The first challenge a girl faces is her own family. Nowadays, more people support girls' education in Nepal. However, there are still a lot of uneducated families who have no idea about education and women's rights.

If we want equality then we need to involve boys as well as girls in advocacy. The boys should know how girls feel when they are teased, or when the boys are allowed to go out but girls have to stay at home after 7pm.

Biggest challenge: Balancing my studies with extra-curricular activities is one of my biggest challenges. My parents were happy to see how concerned I was about women's rights and my activities in community, but they always had a fear that it might affect my studies.

Proudest moment: Organising a flashmob with Hollaback, which campaigns to end street harassment, was one of my proudest moments. More than anything, for me being a part of Women Lead, the first and only leadership organisation for young women in Nepal, makes me proud. As a trainee and as an intern, I was able to interact with people from different backgrounds and spread the word about women's empowerment and at the same time learn from their experiences.

Currently, I am an undergraduate in Webster university in Thailand, majoring in management and international business. I want to pursue a career in social entrepreneurship. My dream is to transform Nepalese society through responsible solution-oriented business.

When we talk about women in business it is about more than sewing, knitting and household work. Some people in Nepal feel that women can't go beyond that. I want to change their misconception about women in business and as a whole.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Global Development Professionals Network

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"When we talk about women in business it is about more than sewing, knitting and household work," Menuka Gurung, 19

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“I created a resource mobilisation project called Pencil Mountain that has delivered over half a million school resources to Ethiopian children,” Hannah Godefa, 15

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In Rwanda, we have one of the most encouraging governments when it comes to empowering women. However, the ties that keep women down are mostly cultural. There isn't a lack of opportunities for women in Rwanda; there is a lack of will among Rwandan women to use those opportunities. That's what I fight to change.

I started getting interested in women's rights when I realised that I was facing cultural stereotypes about my inability to work in the sciences. The government does a lot to change that, but traditions that have held on for years can't be changed overnight.

Biggest challenge: I knew something needed to be done but nothing I could do seemed meaningful enough to change anything. That's when I read many books about challenges that women face worldwide, such as Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and A Thousand Sisters by Lisa Shannon. I started to see the problem as more global, but it made me feel more helpless.

Then I heard of the UN foundation Girl Up. After seeing a global problem, I saw that there might actually be a global solution coming from people of my age. This was the encouragement I needed to start working in my community.

Proudest moment: After that time, with the help of a friend, I opened a girl empowerment organisation. Our goal was to give seminars to younger girls to give a voice to the younger students and to form a united front of young girls ready to fight for every single other young woman who can't fight for themselves.

Even if it's a small change, I know that small change will bring a big change in some people's lives, and that's all I hope for.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Global Development Professionals Network

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"I started getting interested in women's rights when I realised that I was facing cultural stereotypes about my inability to work in the sciences," says Celeste Dushime, 18

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela | Civil war makes a lost generation of Syrian schoolchildren

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Children are suffering from three years of war. Poor nutrition and illness stunt their growth, and a lack of schooling derails their education.

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Newsela | U.S. pledges to help Pakistani girls' education

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Newsela - Pakistani teacher gives poor kids a school under the sky

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By teaching poor Pakistani kids outdoors, this man honors a promise to his dying father.

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Malala Yousafzai - Info Malala Yousafzai

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Malala Yousafzai - Info Malala Yousafzai

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malala-yousafzai.com Merupakan Blog Informasi Perjuangan Dalam Memperjuangkan pendidikan berserta hak kebahagian korban perang antar negara maupun dalam negara

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Malala Yousafzai is a Woman of the Year because... "By targeting her, extremists showed what they feared most: a girl with a book. Malala embodies the power of education to build peace. She is truly a role model for the world."
-Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations__
Update: Malala wins the Nobel Peace Prize "

For most of us, her story began on October 9, 2012, the day a young man with a handkerchief over his face boarded a bus filled with 20 singing, chatting girls on their way home from school in the lush Swat Valley of northern Pakistan. "Who is Malala?" the man asked. When the girls unwittingly glanced toward their 15-year-old friend near the back, he lifted a black Colt .45 and fired three shots, sending a bullet through her head.

But who is Malala? Her real story, she told me, started years before.

When Malala Yousafzai-named, fittingly, after Malalai, a female Afghan martyr who died in battle-was born, her father, a teacher named Ziauddin, refused to grieve the way fathers in his culture were expected to upon having daughters; instead, he wrote her into his clan's family tree-a distinction usually reserved for boys. And Malala's sense of justice came young. When, at an early age, she saw children living on a garbage dump, she wrote a letter to God. "Give me strength and courage," she pleaded. "I want to make this world perfect."

Malala's valley had always been conservative; she remembers disliking having to cover her face, and bristling at the fact that while boys and men could walk freely around town, her mother could not go out without a male relative, "even if it was a five-year-old boy!" But real danger only came to her peaceful region when she was 10-in the form of the Taliban. Then, says Malala,"I got afraid. Not of the Taliban, but because they were banning girls' education." Schools closed; many were bombed; bodies of dissenters piled up in a town square. The local Taliban leader used his radio show to congratulate by name those girls who dropped out of school. The school Malala's father ran stayed open, but for safety, it removed its signs and the girls stopped wearing their uniforms, which would have made them targets.

And that's when Malala really became Malala. When a BBC journalist asked her father to recommend a teacher or student willing to document the terror, no one volunteered-except his own daughter. "I thought, What a great opportunity," she recalls. "Terrorism will spill over if you don't speak up." Under the pen name Gul Makai, she wrote frank, detailed diary entries about her life under the Taliban. Though many urged her to stop, and some have since criticized her father for allowing her to do it, Malala wasn't worried. The Taliban, she remembers, "had never come for a girl."

Emboldened, she began giving speeches across Pakistan in favor of education. She won the country's National Peace Prize and met the prime minister, presenting him with a list of demands on behalf of children-rebuilt schools, a girls' college-but keeping her expectations low. "I told myself, 'I shall not wait for any prime minister-when I'm a politician, I will do these things myself,'" she says. Malala led a double life: In one world, she was an Ugly Betty fan known for her spot-on impersonations of teachers and friends; in the other, a rising voice of dissent against terror. She started to realize her work could be risky. "I used to think that one day the Taliban would come [for me]," she told me. "And I thought, What would I do? I said to myself, 'Malala, you must be brave. You must not be afraid of anyone. You are only trying to get an education-you are not committing a crime.' I would even tell [my attacker], 'I want education for your son and daughter.' " Her own mother decided to take classes to learn to read and write.

And then came October 9.

Her parents rushed to her bedside. "My brave daughter, my beautiful daughter," lamented her father, leaning over her. But his brave daughter recovered, thanks in part to two visiting British doctors who were able to take her to a hospital in Birmingham, England. Around the world, women, men, and children prayed for her. Thousands of letters piled up (one addressed simply to "The Girl Shot in the Head, Birmingham"), and people everywhere asked: Would she be okay? Could she lead a normal life again?

It turns out that for Malala, normal was never the goal. In the year since her attack, she has spoken, written, and fought her way into history, becoming the world's leading advocate for educating girls. Not normal-extraordinary.

At the United Nations in July, she brought the general assembly to its feet. "One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world," she said. Since then she has Skyped with Syrian children, written the memoir I Am Malala, charmed Jon Stewart and Barack Obama, and become one of the youngest-ever nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout it all, she has stayed focused: Let girls go to school.

The issue certainly needs a hero right now. Around the world an estimated 66 million girls are being denied the right to an education. Fix that, scholars have long said, and you could change the course of human history. "There's a saying," says Sheryl WuDunn, coauthor of Half the Sky, "that when you educate boys, you educate boys; when you educate girls, you educate a village." Educated girls are safer from sexual assault and childhood marriage; they go on to raise more-educated children themselves. Her Muslim faith, Malala points out, is in her favor: "Islam tells us every girl and boy should be educated," she says. "I don't know why the Taliban have forgotten it."

For that sensibility, and for her unstoppable drive to change the world, Malala is Glamour's 2013 Women of the Year Fund honoree. The money raised goes to the project she is most passionate about, The Malala Fund, which aims to help children all over the world get the education that is their birthright. The fund recently made its first grant, supporting the educations of 40 girls in the Swat Valley-an achievement that thrills Malala, who wants to expand to other regions and countries (she cites Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria). "Nothing can happen when half the population is in the Stone Age," she says. "I believe that when women are educated, then you will see this world change."

Malala's own world has changed hugely, from a small town to the global stage. She plans to go to college-Oxford, Cambridge, maybe Harvard, "to learn and learn and learn"-and into politics; one of her heroes is the assassinated Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose scarf she wore during that address at the United Nations.

But the place she'd most like to go is home. She misses it dearly. "I miss my room, I miss the traffic-I even miss that garbage dump!" she says. But it's far too dangerous for her there. "We will target her again and attack whenever we have a chance," a Taliban spokesperson told reporters in October. So Malala and her family-her mother, father, and younger brothers Khushal and Atal-are changing the world from abroad. "If Malala can do what she did-take on the Taliban, at risk to her own life," notes 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner (and Woman of the Year) Jody Williams, "then there is really no excuse for the rest of us not to get up off our butts and work to make the world a better place."

The last time I spoke to Malala (by Skype, with her family milling about behind her), I asked her what she wanted Glamour's 12 million readers to know. "You can tell them a story from my imagination!" she said cheerfully. "When God created man and woman, he was thinking, Who shall I give the power to, to give birth to the next human being? And God chose woman. And this is the big evidence that women are powerful. Women are strong. Women can do anything. Come out and struggle for your rights; nothing can happen without your voice.

"Do not wait for me to do something for your rights. It's your world, and you can change it."

__Read more:

* Glamour Women of the Year 2013

* The Malala Fund

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Malala Yousafzai is a Woman of the Year because... "By targeting her, extremists showed what they feared most: a girl with a book. Malala embodies the power of education to build peace. She is truly a role model for the world." -Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations

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For centuries, women have been using their words to educate and inspire - from Coretta Scott King's tales from the frontlines of the civil rights movement to Malala Yousafzai's story of surviving an assassination attempt from the Taliban. While female writers haven't always received the recognition they deserve, many are finally being celebrated for the impact their stories have had on the world.

In honor of Women's History Month, we teamed up with Audible to highlight some of the female writers whose words are empowering readers worldwide. Check out our list of incredible women whose stories come to life through the performances of their must-hear audiobooks.
Throughout Women's History Month, Audible will be celebrating women and the power of their voices. With audiobooks, you can bring books to life wherever you are, whether you're listening during your commute or your workout. Audible's selection of audiobooks includes extraordinary stories written by authors who will inspire you all year round. You can check out the full Audible library by signing up for a 30-day trial - which includes your first audiobook for free - This article was paid for by Audible and co-created by RYOT Studio. HuffPost editorial staff did not participate in the creation of this content.

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5 Women Changing The World With Their Words

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For centuries, women have been using their words to educate and inspire - from Coretta Scott King's tales from the frontlines of the civil rights movement to Malala Yousafzai's story of surviving an assassination attempt from the Taliban.