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.
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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.
The project has been criticised as having excessive administrative costs, a poor choice of collaborators, the support of controversial politicians and the support of organizations connected to terrorism. 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.
Denmark
The national committee was formally founded in 1984.
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) 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. Due to a recent agreement with the Danish Ministry of Education the students are no longer considered to be truant during this day. 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.
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. 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 (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 "Aktion Tagwerk". 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". It was founded with aid from Denmark.
The Neatherlands
Founded with help from the Danish committee, the Dutch national committee is called "One Days Work".
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'.
Norway
Operation Day's Work (Norwegian: Operasjon Dagsverk) is administered by the School Student Union of Norway and was first held in 1964. The official page provide an oversight of earlier projects:
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". 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.
United States
The national committee is called "Operation Day's Work". It was founded n 1999. According to their website they have been involved in the projects listed below.
Another organization called Schools for Schools is using the same concept.