Schools from the United States and Bermuda are attempting to put the dream of a Pakistani boy who was murdered at the age of 12 into action.

Before he died, Iqbal Masih told students at Broad Meadow School in Quincy, Massachusetts that "My dream is to have a school in my village of Muridke in Pakistan, so that every child can be free and educated.'' Iqbal had visited the Broad Meadow School while in Boston to receive the 1994 Reebok Youth in Action Award which he was awarded after escaping from the carpet factory where he had worked since the age of four.

Iqbal was sold to the factory for the equivalent of US $12 by his parents and was shackled to a loom for 12 hours a day. He managed to escape at age ten unlike many of the 200 million child workers worldwide who die while enslaved.

After escaping, Iqbal had joined an anti-slavery organisation, helped free hundreds of children and spoke out internationally against child labour.

He was brutally murdered on April 16 of this year after receiving death threats from members of the Pakistani carpet industry who hoped to silence him.

Students from the school in Boston started raising money after his death for the building of the school in Muridke and the project "A School for Iqbal Masih Fund'' spread across the States and to Bermuda.

The students asked interested schools to donate $12 or more, $12 being symbolic of the price Iqbal was sold into slavery for and of the age he was murdered.

Over $5,000 have been received in donations for the fund but it remains short of its goal of $15,000.

Bermudian schools and individuals have raised almost $1,500 but donations are still needed. Amnesty International's Action Group One in Bermuda have adopted the case and people interested in helping can contact Mrs. Phyllis Caisey at 238-0991.

DREAMER -- Iqbal Masih