Operation Day's Work: From Youth to Youth

Lillian Strand

“Is the world the way it should be?  Or do you think that something ought to be different?”  This was the question that thousands of posters asked Norwegian students a couple of years ago.  It was the end of October, and International Week had started.

Norway occupies a small spot in the upper corner of the world, and only about four million people live here.  Because there happens to be tons of oil in our oceans, we are a very wealthy people.  Still, a lot of young people are not satisfied.  Some of them are involved in Operation Day's Work (ODW).

Operation Day's Work, which began in Norway in 1964, had its origins in the "Give a Day" campaign organized by students in Sweden two years earlier.  Norwegian students, realizing that 1.3 billion people worldwide live in poverty, wanted to take action.

The Norwegian School Student Union took the initiative, arguing that in Norway everyone is entitled to nine years of free schooling, while the majority of youth in the world have little or no education.  They decided to do something, and convinced their schools to suspend one day of classes each year to allow them to work that day to earn money for their less fortunate counterparts around the world.

Students also organized a 10-day information campaign preceding their work day called, “International Week," devoted to studying all aspects of their project country.  In the first year of Operation Day's Work, 35,000 thousand Norwegian students participated in the program.  They worked in factories and offices, washed cars and windows, sold cakes and cookies, and raised $15,000 for educational programs in Algeria.

The program has grown by leaps and bounds.  In the last three decades, Operation Day's Work has supported projects in 35 different countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  Over the last five years, the students have earned more than $20 million, and in 1998 the participating 115,000 Norwegian students raised $3 million.

But the amount of money raised is not the focus of the campaign.  The most remarkable and characteristic thing about ODW is that it is entirely run by young people.  There are between 5,000 and 6,000 students between the ages of 13 and 19 who organize the campaign, from the grassroots level as action committees at every participating school, through the 20 district committees in each county, and finally the National Committee with its nine members in Oslo.

How can school students arrange such a thing, you might ask.  To start with, let's eliminate the idea that Norwegian teenagers are any different from other teenagers.  They are usually looked upon as being self-centered and lazy, mainly spending time on themselves.  So what makes them go beyond their own person and get engaged in something like ODW?

The three crucial things are probably: 1) the ideology of ODW, 2) the structure, and, 3) the results of the campaign.

The ideology of ODW is quite simple.  The world is not the way it should be, and everybody has a responsibility to do something about it.  What makes ODW a bit special is the contrast we make between solidarity and charity.  ODW wants the students to work in solidarity, not out of charity.  That kind of attitude is suppressive and can do more harm than good.  It does something to the symptoms rather than the cause of the unfairness.  Help is to be triggered by mutual respect, not pity.  This means that the main work of Operation Day's Work is done in Norway, by educating students about causes and connections in a world where the majority is poor and minority rich.

During International Week, students are exposed to the Third World in a new way.  Through people, literature, music and culture from the South, ODW's aim is to show "the real South"—its strength, variety, resources and knowledge—and help create a different picture of the Third World than the war-catastrophe-misery one.

It is our hope that the students will realize that these people are not merely hungry, pitiable objects that need our goodwill to survive.  Working in the spirit of solidarity is working with the understanding that we are not all similar, but we are all equal, and both rich and poor can learn from each other.

While the ideology appeals to most people, that alone isn't enough to explain the success of ODW.  The strength lies in the feeling of ownership and the responsibility that is given to the students.  This is our own campaign, we make the decisions and use our language.  Even though some things stay the same, two campaigns are never the same.  The dynamic structure ensures renewal, but also requires good routines in order to keep the acquired knowledge and experiences within the organization.  Most of the volunteers are new every year, and the training is mainly done through instruction books and seminars.  The seminars are always fun.  Motivation is the motor of ODW, and through seminars the sense of community and the spirit is conveyed from one level in the organization to the next.  Each year the National Committee gives a seminar for the leaders of each district committee in April, and one for four members of the district committees in August.  One of the district committees' most important tasks is to arrange two seminars, one for the action committees of the schools in that particular county, and one for the teachers of the participating schools.  The size of the campaign requires three permanent adult employees.  These are the only people in the entire campaign who receive a salary, and they are important for continuity within the organizational work, the credibility of the economic overview and the follow-up on the running projects.

Each October, Norwegian NGOs apply for next year's project.  The ODW Council, consisting of adult people with many years of experience in foreign aid, eliminate the projects that don't fulfill ODW's principles.  Among the main criteria for the projects are that they have to be educational, they have to support young people, and they have to be sustainable and built on local knowledge and support.  Information is gathered and disseminated to student councils of last year's participating schools for a vote, which takes place in the spring.  The National Committee is elected at the annual meeting of the Norwegian School Student Union, based on the recommendations of last year's National Committee.

These nine people start their work immediately and work full time from May on forming the material and the campaign.  Each member has a certain area of responsibility and is also a contact person for two or three counties.  It is their job to prepare International Week.  With the philosophy that knowledge is part of the campaign, 10 percent of the money raised for the project is spent on International Week.

The National Committee publishes a magazine that goes to all the students, devoted to all aspects of the project country, including its culture, history, religion, politics, and education.  A teacher's guide on how to incorporate the project country into that year's school curriculum is produced, as are posters, stickers, slide shows, radio and television spots, websites and guidebooks for the district and school committees.  Ten guests from the project country are invited, and one person on the National Committee locates translators and arranges everything for the trip.  The guests travel around the country to visit the students, each covering one county.

In addition to this, the schools can get lectures from members of the district and the National Committee, and also from external lecturers that the cooperating NGO is required to provide.  The schools decide how they want their International Week to be, and everything is done to make this a special happening.  Culture and dancing groups are popular, and many action committees arrange exhibitions, international cafes and workshops where students can prepare food, make arts and crafts, learn songs, etc., from the project country.  Only the imagination sets the limits.

Young Norwegians of today know a lot about the world's miseries and often feel that they cannot do anything to change them.  Operation Day's Work offers students an opportunity to make a difference.  This is especially true for the students involved in arranging the campaign.  At each level in the organization, they are allowed to use and develop their abilities, and at the same time they help their fellow brothers and sisters in the Third World.  But, most important, this something everybody can participate in.  After 10 days of International Week, students have a chance to take action by working for one day.  They are responsible for finding their own day's work, although the school committee will assist those unable to come up with a job.  Employers pay the student workers a minimum wage of $20 or $30, depending on their age.

The workday also has positive consequences for the local community.  Students brighten the day by being on the streets selling cakes and cookies, giving shows, etc.  The students often do the work that never gets done, such as cleaning streets, doing the dirty work in shops, mowing yards, helping in nurseries, etc.

Three million dollars raised annually will not change the world.  Even being young and idealistic, we in ODW know that.  But for the young people who, through the projects we support, get the chance to fulfill their dreams of an education, it really makes a difference.  And when one experiences what ODW does to oneself and to thousands of other Norwegians, it is easy to believe that changes come from knowledge and mutual understanding.

Lillian Strand is a student at the University of Oslo, where she studies economics and political science.  She has been involved with Operation Day's Work for four years, in 1998 as a member of the National Committee, and in 1999 as the leader of Operation Day's Work International Committee.

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