Math Story
It was one of the last days of school. We drew  quilt squares to make quilts. I told many stories to the students about children around the world, including children enslaved in rug factories in India. Free the Slaves (www.freetheslaves.net) helps to educate us about slavery in the world today. There are 27 million slaves, more than ever before.

The Bal Vikas Ashram helps the boys in India by freeing them from the rug factories after they are stolen from their village streets. They contact the parents, give them medical care, counseling to give them back their dignity, and teach them to read, so that they can go home possibly the most educated in their village.

The Math Problem:
 
Little Fawn, a fourth grader in a middle Tennessee school clenched her fist. "Why don't you sell your quilts to take care of the children?"

When you go into fifth grade next year, you will be split into four different classes, with four different teachers. Ask the teacher if they will  put a jar on their desk and you all put in $ 1.50 a month.  Maybe you don't buy ice cream or a candy bar sometime. Or, maybe you dust for your mother. 

Every student puts in  $1.50 a month. You will raise $30 per class, per month. That is enough to free one child from slavery. $30.00  times 10 school months equals______?   That  frees ten children per class. Ten times four teachers/ four classes.  

How many slaves would you all help free, educate, and get back to their parents in one year if you do this_______?  You can do more than I can alone.

The Bal Vikas Ashram frees children from slavery in the carpet factories, provides counseling, medical care and education, while teaching children to read and become helpful members of their community.

HG Hill Middle School: Quilts carry freedom message.

For further information:

www.freetheslaves.net - The first step to abolishing slavery is recognition of the problem

National Geographic - 21st -Century Slavery Exposed