Amal has just finished drawing my portrait. Though he is eight years old, he has to leave immediately so he can finish his 12-hour shift at a local factory. He has just spent an hour in a centre run by Save the Children in Dhaka where he can mix with other children and play.

He is one of many children in Bangladesh who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, in illegal factories to help their families survive. The fact that it is unavoidable does not make it right.

I have recently returned from Bangladesh, where I visited some of the centres I had set
up and worked in for Save the Children in the 1970s. It was an extraordinary experience. I was first inspired to go to Bangladesh in my 20s when I saw heart-rending TV images of the civil war that led to the country’s formation.
I immediately volunteered my services to the charity and ended up staying for two years.

The Children’s Hospital that we started in 1975 never had less than 150 children despite having only 50 beds. Now it has 300 beds and is run to the highest standards. Funded by the local community and local government, it is self-supporting and a perfect social model. Those who can afford to pay, do. Others are treated for free or pay just a little. It’s wonderful to see such progress in a country blighted by poverty.

Bangladesh’s population has risen from 75m to 150m in just over 30 years in a country roughly the size of Scotland (which has a population of only 5m). With few natural resources, factories have sprung up to provide employment for some.

The factories I visited on behalf of the charity were making items for the domestic market – padlocks, jewellery, plastics. They are nearly all illegal and employ children from the age of six. The conditions are appalling. There’s often no fresh air, no natural light and the children are hunched over machines for 12 hours with only short breaks. As part of my charity work, I have travelled extensively in the developing world and have encountered poverty and all that it entails but it is impossible not to be outraged by what I saw.

One particularly gruesome, dungeon-like factory had chemical fumes, and no natural light or ventilation. It was a totally Dickensian experience. After my visit, I texted a friend in London to tell him of my anger. He replied from the comfort of his London flat, saying that anger is bad – a negative energy. I was livid. I see the alternative to anger as apathy and disinterest. We have to care about these children and the conditions they work in.

Thank goodness for organisations such as Save the Children. After negotiations with employers, the charity has made it possible for many of these children to come together for one hour a day. It offers them the opportunity to spend some time as children – to play games, sing, make friends and get a little education. This is definitely giving them a better life.

The humbling factor is that the children manage to exude such cheerfulness and joy.

On November 15, two days after I left Bangladesh, the country was hit by a cyclone that killed more than 3,000 people and sparked a humanitarian crisis. These poor people simply never seem to get a break.

A few days after returning from Bangladesh, my job as a hotelier took me to the Leading Hotels of the World conference in Monaco. Outside the principality’s grand hotels, Bentley Continentals and Ferraris were all vying for positions close to entrances. There were vicuna coats in the shop windows at €16,000 a pop! To call it a topsy-turvy world is being kind. I flew recently to the Middle East on business and in my comfortable seat was offered every film that has ever been made and every piece of music ever written, I found myself switching the system off and reading my book instead. My motto is: because you can, doesn’t mean you do. I guess I am just a wee Presbyterian at heart.

The TV presenter and Save the Children supporter Davina McCall, who accompanied me on this last trip to Bangladesh, and I were last month meant to be on the BBC’s breakfast show to talk about child labour in the factories. We were very politely cancelled because they felt that, after all the news on the cyclone, there had been enough about Bangladesh. Why were we not surprised?

It was my friend the late Anita Roddick who first reminded me of the importance of being outraged and who taught me the importance of acting upon it. Just do it, she would say. I am feeling very raw after the trip and thus rather grumpy. It is hard to watch people rushing around London getting ready for Christmas and buying so much stuff. It is hard to not say, “Stop, you don’t need it,” but who am I to say.

When it comes to action, it is not easy to have faith in either government or church. We are on our own. It is up to us. There will always be a large place for charity.

Save the Children works where it is needed and where it can. Every day its workers make a difference to the lives of thousands of children throughout the world. None of us can save the world but we can in a small way make a huge difference.

If little Amal can have two hours a day merely being a child and picking up a little education, this would be a huge thing for him. We can make
it happen.

Gordon Campbell Gray is an international hotelier and a vice-president of Save the Children