Operation Day's Work

Operation Day's Work is a charity program based on volunteering by high school students in Sweden 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 for having excessive administrative costs, a poor choice of collaborators, the support of controversial politicians and the support of organizations connected to terrorism.^[3] This criticism, however, has inexplicable proof and elusive examples to back up the accusations. 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 a third world 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
1985	Tanzania	1996	Ladakh	2004	Nicaragua, Honduras og Guatemala
1986	Nicaragua	1997	Guatemala	2005	Kirgisistan
1988	Namibia	1998	Palæstina	2006	South Africa
1990	Eritrea	1999	South Sudan	2007	Bolivia
1991	Brazil	2000	Romani people	2008	Niger
1992	Somalia	2001	Mexico	2009	Zimbabwe [8]
1994	Ecuador	2002	Nepal	2010	Burma
1995	Mozambique	2003	Cambodja	2011	Peru
2012	Iraq	2013	Sierra Leone

Finland

The national committee in Finland is called Taksvärkki ry / Operation a Day’s Work (ODW) Finland. ODW Finland 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. ODW Finland also provides high-quality global education for Finnish schools for free. The 2013-2014 campaign project is done for youth in Sierra Leone.^[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 "Acktion 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
1964	Algeria	1967	Peru	1968	Ceylon	1969	Zambia
1970	Zambia	1971	Guinea Bissau and Angola	1972	Portuguese Empire in Africa	1973	Bangladesh
1974	Tanzania	1975	Botswana	1976	Sudan	1977	Brazil
1978	Cambodian refugees in Thailand	1979	Jamaica	1980	Refugees from Eritrea in Sudan	1981	Afghanistan
1982	Zimbabwe	1983	Nicaragua	1984	Bolivia and Ecuador	1985	Namibia
1987	Eritrea	1988	Several places in Africa	1989	Peru	1990	Support for education in freedom
1991	Brazil and Chile	1992	Costa Rica, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil	1993	Cambodia	1994	South Africa
1995	Brazil	1996	Afghanistan	1997	Brazil	1998	Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi and Uganda
1999	Girls all over the world	2000	South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bolivia and Nicaragua	2001	Indonesia, New Guinea and Malaysia	2002	Sierra Leone
2003	Ceylon	2004	South Africa	2005	Brazil	2006	Nepal
2007	Several places in Central America	2008	Bangladesh	2009	Malawi, Mombasa Uganda and South Africa	2010	Brazil
2011	Rwanda	2012	Nepal

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

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

References

1. Om Operation Dagsverke, (About), Operation Dagsvaerke Sweden
2. Operation Dagsvaerk Internationalt, Operation Dagsvaerk Denmark
3. Drop Operation Dagsvaerk
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. Akction-Tagverk, Germany
12. Operation Daywork, Italy
13. One Days Work
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