Young Canmore Girl Wants to Change Soccer Balls in Schools

Leanne Post may be 12 years old, but she realizes our actions locally have global implications.

The Grade 7 student, in preparing a citizenship project for school, decided to look into the use of child labour for manufacturing soccer balls.

The project brought to light information Post says shocked her and has also seen her challenge her school, Lawrence Grassi Middle School, to only use soccer balls that are certified Fair Trade.

“I really hope this grabs people’s attention,” Post says. “A lot of these children miss out on their education and work 10 to 15 hours a day and get paid little more than $2 a day.”

She pointed to the fact that out of 35 million soccer balls made a year in Pakistan, 8.7 million are produced using child labour.

“I was thinking our school could change to child labour free (soccer balls),” she says. “I was hoping an article could affect other schools too.”

At LGMS, each classroom has two soccer balls and Post says there was interest from her teachers to look into ensuring they are Fair Trade products.

Post says while researching her project she was struck by the fact those used as child labour are the same age as herself. She says the fact that school children here could be using soccer balls made with child labour doesn’t sit well with her and she would like to see that change.

“I thought our world was better than that,” she says. “I would like to affect more people and make them aware.

“It would be a good challenge to see how much of a difference all the schools can make.”