Street Kids International
Rob Clark

"I went to Africa to rescue destitute children but they ended up rescuing me. The world’s poorest kids taught me that my life is worth far more than the clothes on my back or the car in the garage. In sprawling shantytowns devoid of running water and electricity I had expected to find darkness and despair. Instead I discovered light and life."

These are the invigorating words of Peter Dalglish, a man this writer had the pleasure of meeting at a United Nations conference in Ottawa. On that barren summer’s eve in a quaint little bookstore on Sussex Drive, I was just another person left inspired by the story of Dalglish.

In 1984, Peter was fresh out of law school and working for a reputable law firm. He was already well on his way to owning an expensive sports car and a vacation home by the sea - two of his childhood ambitions.

However, Peter’s life changed dramatically after being disconcerted by television images of the 1984 Ethiopian famine. Consequently, Peter organized an airlift of food and medical supplies to the nation in need. Upon his return, Peter was inclined to relinquish his promising career in law in exchange for the opportunity to work alongside some of the world’s poorest children.

If anything, Peter’s experiences in Africa taught him the best way to make a difference is to get up and actually make a difference.

One day while in Sudan, a country in northeast Africa, Peter stumbled upon a young ‘street kid’ trying to break into his car. Instead of writing off the impoverished youth, Peter was inclined to transfer the young boy’s swindling skills into a more worthy objective. He established Sudan’s first technical training school for street children where thieves were transformed into carpenters and pickpockets into electricians.

In addition, recognizing the poor infrastructure of the city of Khartoum in Sudan, he set up a mail delivery service where street kids delivered mail on bicycles to local businesses.

It should be noted, in attempting to give a voice to impoverished children, Peter constantly ran into confrontation with not only local elites who wanted no part of the betterment of street kids, but also with those organizations attempting to help Peter fight for the same cause. He would often run into problems with UNICEF, the World Health Organization or the UN Development Program - whose members were often too busy relaxing at the local country club.

These people recurrently seemed indifferent towards the poor children of Sudan. Peter had to remind those who were being detrimental to his advancement of street kids that, "the letter C in the word UNICEF does not stand for car, or cash, or credit card. It stands for children."

If there was one fundamental message Peter wished to accentuate, it is people put too much faith in institutions and not enough faith in people. The United Nations is flawed because its bureaucrats get too comfortable behind their desks and forget about the Dinka youth who is driven away from his/her family out of fear of persecution and is forced to survive in the unforgiving conditions of urban poverty.

To write off street kids as worthless, useless or dirty would be the worst human rights violation of all.

To devalue others and to show no conscious remorse for their shortcomings is equal to planting a landmine yourself.

To date, Peter Dalglish’s accomplishments are grandiose at a very minimum. He is the founder of Street Kids International and former Director of Youth Service Canada, the Government of Canada’s civilian youth corps.

He is currently the Director of the Gallman Memorial Foundation USA. For his efforts, he has received the Vanier Award, and in 1989 was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young People of the World.

Peter has also befriended humanitarians such as Mother Teresa and Bob Geldolf. He also has received numerous honorary degrees, including one from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Yet all of these would not have been possible without Peter’s certitude that one person can make a difference.