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Growing up, Zach always had a strong sense of justice. If someone got knocked down in the playground, he would rush to help them up and chase after the person who knocked them down. When he was 12 years old, during Black History Month at school, Zach learnt about slavery. Learning that from the 16th to the 19thcenturies some black people were owned and made to work by white people made Zach angry. He wished he had lived back then and could have fought to free the slaves.
Zach spoke to his mother, who had just started working for an anti-slavery group that went around the world freeing slaves. He was surprised to learn there is still such a thing as modern slavery. The feeling of anger returned, but this time Zach felt he could do something about it.
Zach decided to use collection buckets to raise money for organisations that help free slaves. This is when his idea ‘Loose change to loosen chains’ was born. He chose five non-profit organizations that free people from slavery around the world. The organisations pay for people to go in and take evidence of slavery, which is then taken to the local police so that they can then go and free the slaves and arrest the bad guys.
Zach put out yellow collection buckets in stores, walked the streets asking for donations and asked people at his school to bring in loose change. After several weeks his buckets were full and Zach went to the bank to get his change converted into a cheque. He had collected so many coins that the counting machine at the bank stopped working four times! Eventually, after a lot of patience, his change was converted into a cheque.
Three years later, Zach decided to write a book called ‘Be The Change’ to teach teenagers about what they can do to help. Zach always used his emotions to motivate his actions. He said, ‘It made me angry that people of my skin colour thought it was okay to own other people based on the colour of their skin. I decided it is not enough to feel angry. It is not enough to feel guilty. It is not enough to feel sad. You can choose to allow your emotions to motivate you into action.’
