Meet UWindsor’s Free The Children President

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coryn Langford is a student at UWindsor, and she is also the president of the 

 

University’s Free the Children organization. I interviewed Coryn in order to learn 

 

more about them, and how they are helping people around the world. Let’s get 

 

started.

 

 

Free the Children is a charity movement, that actually started in Ontario by Craig 

 

and Marc Kielburger. They wanted youth to be able to Create Change 

 

internationally. At the University we work together to create change both in our 

 

own community and fundraising through different events to support the Free the 

 

Children. We “adopted” a small village called Burna in India and our money for this 

 

town goes towards five pillars, and that is Education, clean water and sanitation, 

 

alternative income, and lastly agriculture and food security. For example this year 

 

we had a fundraiser to get people in our village goats. This provides milk for a family 

 

giving them nutrients they need. As well they are able to sell this milk for income 

 

and support themselves.

 

 

When I was in grade 9, my English teacher would make beds for countries in need 

 

out of milk bags. I couldn’t believe that something we find wasteful could help 

 

someone, to an extent of making them a bed. Since then, I’ve always thought the 

 

small things can help make an impact so I helped out with different fundraisers at 

 

my high school. When I came to the University I found Free the Children and I 

 

thought it was a great opportunity to help make a difference.

 

 

 

I think it all starts from small acts of kindness, such as if you see someone homeless 

 

in the winter, give them mittens or if someone has fallen help them up. We are all in 

 

need at some point in our life and we all need someone to help us at that time. As 

 

they say “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” With Free the 

 

Children we work on helping people through each aspect with the five pillars and 

 

with time help build a stable community. We don’t just build a school and leave, we 

 

have people going in for years after helping build a community within that school, 

 

encouraging all children to go. Helping provide educators and a staff. It’s all through 

 

small steps to build a large picture. I wouldn’t consider it “my organization” at the 

 

University we all work as a team discussing ideas as to what we want to do each 

 

semester. I would honestly say though come to a meeting and see, we had a member 

 

who wanted to help our own community so we had a week where we sent 

 

volunteers to the Salvation Army to assist. We want to help Create Change that our 

 

University wants to see in our Community.

 

 

They can either follow or message us on Facebook at Free the Children at Uwindsor 

 

or email us at ftcuwindsor@gmail.com