Did you know that in the United States today, there are more slaves than there were before the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863? World wide, the number is even more staggering The slave-trade infiltrates many of the products most of use and purchase on a daily basis. There are organizations and companies working on shutting down the traffic sources, and raising awareness among consumers who unwittingly purchase those products. But no one is doing it quite like one inspirational ten-year-old girl. Vivienne Harr is a pint-sized entrepreneur whose heart is as big as her aspirations. When she was eight years old she saw a photograph of two young Nepalese brothers with heavy stones strapped to their backs, by photographer Lisa Kristine. Asking why the boys had to carry stones, she learned that they were slaves, and in that moment she decided that child slavery had to end, and that she was going to make that happen.

She started with her lemonade stand, but even at two dollars a cup, she wasn't making a dent. She changed her pricing structure to "Whatever's in your heart." and gave everything she made to organizations that fight child slavery. Vivienne committed to operating her lemonade stand for 365 days straight, rain or shine, to end child slavery.

From a Business Insider article:

As word got out about her mission, Harr continued to sit at her increasingly popular lemonade stand every day, and in December, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg invited her to sell her lemonade in Times Square. By the end of the day, she had raised $101,320.

Even then, she declared she wouldn't stop until child-slavery no longer existed, so her parents decided to create a company to work for Vivienne's passion. Make A Stand produces bottled, fair-trade, organic, "lemon-aid" and fiver percent of the profits goes toward a foundation which funds organizations working to abolish slavery world-wide. So far the foundation has raised more than $25,000.

How do you make a difference?

Read about Vivienne's "Lemonade Lessons" on entrepreneurship in this Business Insider interview with the 10-year-old philanthropist.

If you want to laugh, smile and cry, hop on over to the Make A Stand blog.

Sources: http://makeastand.com/pages/viviennes-story