Operation Day's Work

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

During Operation a Day's Work ( also called Solidarity Action Day) pupils get the chance to exercise a job of their choice instead of going to school for one day. They donate their salaries to youth-related projects from all over the world. Today there are Operation Day's Work organisations in several countries.

Multiple Operation Day's Work organisations have 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, and include more values and principles of the organisations.

Countries with a national Operation Day's Work committee

Denmark

The national committee was formally founded in 1984.[2]

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 chosen project in a development country. Due to a recent agreement with the Danish Ministry of Education the students are no longer considered to be truant during this day.[3]

Year Country supported Year Country supported Year Country supported
1985Tanzania1996Ladakh2004Nicaragua, Honduras og Guatemala
1986Nicaragua1997Guatemala2005Kirgisistan
1988Namibia1998Palæstina2006South Africa
1990Eritrea1999South Sudan2007Bolivia
1991Brazil2000Romani people2008Niger
1992Somalia2001Mexico2009Zimbabwe[4]
1994Ecuador2002Nepal2010Burma
1995Mozambique2003Cambodia2011Peru
2012Iraq2013Sierra Leone2014Kenya
2015Somaliland2016Guatemala2017Dhaka
2018Greenland2019Uganda2020Peru

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.[5] The patron of the Taksvärkki campaign is President Tarja Halonen.

Germany

In Germany there a few organizations which organize the Solidarity Action Days.

The biggest and oldest one is called Schüler Helfen Leben[6] (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 Solidarity Action Day, and is therefore also the only one which is part of SAME. Over the years more than 1.000.000 students earned more than Euro20,000,000 and realized more than 150 youth projects all over the western Balkans. The Patron of the Soliarity Action Day is the German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Another organization is called "Aktion Tagwerk".[7] This organization is part of the Human Help Network and organizes the social day for children in Africa.

Italy

In Italy, there are two organisations organisation a Day's Work.

One of them is based in South Tirol, "Operation Daywork".[8] It was founded with aid from Denmark.[9] Operation Daywork works with both Italian speaking schools and with German speaking schools.

The second one is also based in the North, more precisely in Veneto. It works with Italian schools and the organisation is called Social Day.

Belgium

The Belgian national committee is called 'YOUCA' (Youth for Change and Action), formerly known as "Zuiddag". It was founded in 2006, after getting to know the Norwegian organisation. The Belgian organisation only works with schools in the Flanders Region and Brussels Capital Region.

Norway

Operation Day's Work (Norwegian: Operasjon Dagsverk) is administered by the School Student Union of Norway and was first held in 1964.[10] 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".[11] 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.[12]

United States

The national committee is called "Operation Day's Work". It was founded in 1999.[13] 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 Archived 10 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine, (About), Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
  2. Projects Archived 21 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Operation Day's work, Denmark
  3. Retningslinier for statstilskud til Operation Dagsværk (Instructions for aid to Operation Dagsvaerk), the Department of Education in Denmark, September 2004
  4. Country chosen to make the leading African president attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 COP15
  5. Direct action from youth to youth, Taksvärkki ry – Operation a Day's Work, Finland
  6. , Germany
  7. Aktion Tagwerk, Germany
  8. Operation Daywork, Italy
  9. Operation Dagsvaerk Internationalt Archived 17 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Operation Dagsvaerk Denmark
  10. tidligere prosjekter Archived 23 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine (Former projects), Operasjon Dagsverk Norway
  11. Frågor och Svar Archived 10 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine (FAQ), Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
  12. Årets kampanj Archived 9 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
  13. Our Constitution Archived 16 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Operation Day's Work, USA
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