Approximately half of the world’s population is now under the age of 25. The problems facing millions of children and young people every day are numerous: poverty, illiteracy, dropping out of school, violence, forced labour, prostitution, and drug addiction. No country is immune. How can we help the world’s youth while focusing on self-sufficiency instead of charity? According to some Architects of Change, by introducing young people to the cultural wealth that surrounds them and giving them an education, we can provide them with the key tools they need for their development and freedom. Architects of Change featured: * Originally from Quebec, Mathieu Fortier moved to India, intending to learn about Indian culture. He fell in love with Indian music and languages and got the idea of starting a music school for economically disadvantaged children. In 2001 he, his brother Blaise and teacher, Ustad Hameed Khan bought a farm on which they established their school of traditional music, called Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya. * Khuon Det from rural Cambodia fled the civil war and genocidal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, living in a vast refugee camp on the border of Thailand. He participated in drawing workshops offered to child refugees, then helped create Phare Ponleu Selpak (the light of art), with the goal of helping youth overcome the trauma of war through drawing, music and general education. * Kathy Knowles, a Toronto pediatric nurse, moved to Accra, Ghana, when her husband took a job with a gold mining company there. She realized that young Ghanaians did not have access to books, so she invited some local children to join her for weekly reading sessions. She created the Osu Children’s Library Fund so that children, as well as adults, in Ghana could have access to books and learn to read.