Eucation is our Weapon

Fact files of Children who stand up
for the Right to Education

This ebook is the result of the combined efforts of students from Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, Turkey.
Article 28 and article 29 of the Convention of the rights of the Child guided our eTwinners to become aware that education may be considered a weapon because it helps children to develop their personality, talents and mental and physical abilities.
In this ebook they collected all the researches they made about children who spent or are spending their life to fight for this Right.

Asean Johnson was 9 years old when the primary school in his minority community of Chicago in the USA was going to be closed due to lack of funding. Asean was just a grade 4 student, but he believed local government should support education and invest in the local schools and children.
Asean began campaigning and calling out local politicians, including the Chicago mayor and the Chicago Board of Education, with the rallying cry 'Education is a right, that is why we have to fight.'

Asean understood that education is a right, not a privilege for all children. He was the youngest speaker at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, and later spoke against gun violence at the People’s March for Public Education and Social Justice rally in Washington, D.C – another issue that affects his local community.

Asean challenges other young people to get more involved in their schools and communities, and to not be afraid to speak out.

ASEAN JOHNSON

Iqbal Masih

Iqbal Masih, was born in 1983 in Muridke, Pakistan, into a poor family. He was four years old when his father sold him into slavery to a carpet factory owner. He was forced to work more than twelve hours a day. He was constantly beaten, verbally abused, and chained to his loom by his master. In 1992 Iqbal and some other children ran away from their carpet factory to attend a freedom day celebration held by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF). At the gathering they learned about their rights. Iqbal gave a speech about his sufferings, which was printed in the local papers.

Afterwards Iqbal refused to return to the factory, he contacted a BLLF lawyer and obtained a letter of freedom that he presented to his former master. Iqbal started going to school, he was a bright and energetic student, but he continued fighting for the children's rights. He gave many speeches against child slavery, he wished all children could be free and could enjoy the right to education.

His dream was to become a lawyer because he wanted to free the seven and a half million illegally enslaved children from Pakistan. Unfortunately Iqbal was fatally shot by the carpet Mafia, while visiting relatives in his town.