Operation Day's Work

Operation Day's Work is a solidarity program based on volunteering by high school students in Norway to honor the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld.[1]

The concept is for the schools to allow the students to leave their high school and work for a single day. The pay for this day of work goes to whatever charity the organization behind the national committee decides. Originally it was called "A Day for Dag".

Today there are Operation Day's Work committees in several countries. The committee in Denmark has helped spreading this type of volunteering to the Netherlands and Italy.[2]

The project has been criticised as having excessive administrative costs, a poor choice of collaborators, the support of controversial politicians and the support of organizations connected to terrorism.[3] Furthermore, have multiple Operation Day's Work committees engaged in the SAME network (SAME ). Within this network, all the committees have agreed to the terms of the network's basic common principles and quality guidelines. These documents ensure the ecological, economic and social sustainability of the committee and their supported projects as well as the independence of any political party or religion.

Countries with a national Operation Day's Work committee

Denmark

The national committee was formally founded in 1984.[4]

Instructions from the department of Education specifically state that no student can be forced to take part. The pay for their work goes to a (sometimes controversial)[3] chosen project in an underdeveloping country. Only a minor fraction of Danish students participate in this event, mainly because most Danish people see supporting third world countries as something the population has already paid for in taxes. As a result, most students stay in school.[5] Due to a recent agreement with the Danish Ministry of Education the students are no longer considered to be truant during this day.[6] The present Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, created an alternative to Operation Day's work called "Operation School Work" when he was chairman of a youth organization in 1988. As a result, some people suggested he should be accused of murder.[7]

Year Country supported Year Country supported Year Country supported
1985Tanzania1996Ladakh2004Nicaragua, Honduras og Guatemala
1986Nicaragua1997Guatemala2005Kirgisistan
1988Namibia1998Palæstina2006South Africa
1990Eritrea1999South Sudan2007Bolivia
1991Brazil2000Romani people2008Niger
1992Somalia2001Mexico2009Zimbabwe [8]
1994Ecuador2002Nepal2010Burma
1995Mozambique2003Cambodja2011Peru
2012Iraq2013Sierra Leone

Finland

The national committee in Finland is called Taksvärkki ry / Operation a Day’s Work (ODW) Finland. Taksvärkki ry is a non-governmental organization (NGO) whose objective is to improve the living conditions and promote the human rights of children and young people in developing countries and to encourage Finnish young people towards global solidarity. Taksvärkki ry has implemented development cooperation projects since 1967 with funds raised by Finnish schoolchildren and students. ODW Finland also provides free development education material for schools in Finland. The campaign for the school year 2018-2019 is for active youth in Zambia.[9] The patron of the Taksvärkki campaign is President Tarja Halonen.

Germany

In Germany there a few organizations which organize the Social Day. The biggest and oldest one is called Schüler Helfen Leben [10] (Students Helping Life), founded in 1992 when war in the Balkans started. Even today this organization runs youth projects in Balkan Region. Schüler Helfen Leben is also the only Day's Work organization in Germany where only students and young volunteers organize the Social Day. Over the years more than 1.000.000 students earned more than 20.000.000 Euro and realized more than 150 youth projects all over the western Balkans. The Patron of the Social Day is the German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Another organization is called "Aktion Tagwerk".[11] This organization is part of the Human Help Network and organizes the social day for children in Africa.

Italy

The Italian national committee is called "Operation Daywork".[12] It was founded with aid from Denmark.[2]

The Neatherlands

Founded with help from the Danish committee,[2] the Dutch national committee is called "One Days Work".[13]

Belgium

The Belgian national committee is called 'Zuiddag'. It was founded in 2006 with aid from Norway. The campaign in October when students go to work one day for a youth project is called 'Work for Change'.[14]

Norway

Operation Day's Work (Norwegian: Operasjon Dagsverk) is administered by the School Student Union of Norway and was first held in 1964.[15] The official page provide an oversight of earlier projects:

Year Country supported Year Country supported Year Country supported Year Country supported
1964Algeria1967Peru1968Ceylon1969Zambia
1970Zambia1971Guinea Bissau and Angola1972Portuguese Empire in Africa1973Bangladesh
1974Tanzania1975Botswana1976Sudan1977Brazil
1978Cambodian refugees in Thailand1979Jamaica1980Refugees from Eritrea in Sudan1981Afghanistan
1982Zimbabwe1983Nicaragua1984Bolivia and Ecuador1985Namibia
1987Eritrea1988South Africa and Mozambique1989Peru1990Support for education in freedom
1991Brazil and Chile1992Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Bolivia and Brazil		1993Cambodia1994South Africa
1995Brazil1996Afghanistan1997Brazil1998Tanzania, Zanzibar,
Malawi and Uganda
1999Girls all over the world2000South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Bolivia and Nicaragua		 2001Indonesia, New Guinea and Malaysia2002Sierra Leone
2003Ceylon2004South Africa2005Brazil2006Nepal
2007Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua2008Bangladesh2009Malawi, Mombasa
Uganda and South Africa		2010Brazil
2011Rwanda2012Nepal2013Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico2014Etiopia and Malawi
2015Argentina, Chile and Peru2016Colombia2017Nigeria2018Palestine

Sweden

Sweden was the first country to establish this event. Since 1962 the national committee has been under control of a student organization called "Sveriges Elevråds Centralorganiastion, SECO".[16] There has been a power struggle inside the SECO organization and the government has demanded oversight over the collection of the money.

The campaign for 2010 will support schools in Sudan.[17]

United States

The national committee is called "Operation Day's Work". It was founded in 1999.[18] According to their website they have been involved in the projects listed below.

Year Country supported Year Country supported Year Country supported Year Country supported
1998–1999Haiti 1999–2000El Salvador 2000Nepal 2002Ethiopia
2003Bangladesh 2004Sierra Leone 2005Vietnam

Another organization called Schools for Schools is using the same concept.


References

  1. ↑ Om Operation Dagsverke, (About), Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
  2. 1 2 3 Operation Dagsvaerk Internationalt, Operation Dagsvaerk Denmark
  3. 1 2 Drop Operation Dagsvaerk Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Projects, Operation Day's work, Denmark
  5. ↑ Elever svigter Operation Dagsværk, (The students desert Operation Dagsvaerk), Denmark's Radio, November 7, 2007
  6. ↑ Retningslinier for statstilskud til Operation Dagsværk (Instructions for aid to Operation Dagsvaerk), the Department of Education in Denmark, September 2004
  7. ↑ Lars Løkke efterlyst for mord, by Jesper Lundh, Lokalavisen, March 8, 2009
  8. ↑ Country chosen to make the leading African president attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 COP15
  9. ↑ Direct action from youth to youth, Taksvärkki ry - Operation a Day's Work, Finland
  10. ↑ , Germany
  11. ↑ Aktion Tagwerk, Germany
  12. ↑ Operation Daywork, Italy
  13. ↑ One Days Work
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ tidligere prosjekter (Former projects), Operasjon Dagsverk Norway
  16. ↑ Frågor och Svar (FAQ), Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
  17. ↑ Årets kampanj, Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
  18. ↑ Our Constitution, Operation Day's Work, USA
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