2006 Awards
North America
United States –Operation Day’s Work, USA: Support for Holiday Fair to Raise Funds to Build School in India for Former Child Laborers
Operation Day’s Work is a national student-run organization dedicated to helping to identify and create educational opportunities for poor children in developing countries. They are, “kids helping kids help themselves.” Students from Quincy, Massachusetts conducted a holiday fair to raise funds to help children, such as building a school overseas for children who have no school. The IIECL Youth Mini-Grant Award was used to help cover the cost of Operation Day’s Work to put on the holiday fair. With the funds from IIECL, the event doubled their fund raising goal raising more than $1,000 for their project.
2005 Awards
Latin America
Mexico and Guatemala—Emily Sandall: Research with Migrant Families Who Migrate for Employment in Agriculture
Ms. Sandall received a second IIECL Youth Mini-Grant Award to build upon her work in Mexico. Ms. Sandall conducted research with Mexican and Guatemalan migrants who travel from the southern areas of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico to the northern agricultural export plantations in San Quintin, Mexico for employment. These migrant families often travel into the United States to follow agricultural work as far north as Washington State. Ms. Sandall’s research offered some of the first insights into who these migrants are, where they come from, and groups that are recruiting the workers for work in agriculture in the North.
2004 Awards
Latin America
Mexico—Emily Sandall: Photo Documentary Project with Street Children in Mexico
Ms. Sandall was the first recipient of the IIECL Youth Mini-Grant Award. Ms. Sandall was funded to conduct a photo documentary project with street children in Mexico City, Mexico. Ms. Sandall spent several weeks working with street children and provided them with portable cameras which they used to document their lives on the streets. Ms. Sandall worked with the children to teach the street children basic lifeskills and promoting education as a pathway to leave the streets. Ms. Sandall produced a slide show of her work and the photographs taken by the children. The publication is entitled, “Teaching Street Children on Their Turf.”