Schools on the front line in the fight against sexual abuse in Haiti Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a significant public health concern for all girls and women in Haiti and particularly in the urban center of Port-au-Prince. One in three women in Haiti have experienced sexual violence and half of all rape victims are under age 17 at the time of the crime (Amnesty International 2008)
On a sunny day late in September, I tagged along on a lobbying visit to the Brazilian Embassy in Washington – led by Kailash Satyarthi, with colleagues from the Child Labor Coalition and the International Labor Rights Forum. Following this fall’s swirl of activities at the UN General Assembly and a myriad of meetings about the Beyond-2015 plans (Sustainable Development Goals) including education, Kailash is focused on one thing…ENDING CHILD SLAVERY.
Why are we failing to deliver on the promise of educating girls? In rural areas in Nigeria, surveys have found that at the end of 3rd grade, only 6 percent of students are able to read a simple sentence. In Malawi, it is illegal for pregnant girls and young mothers to return to school. In Guatemala, only 10 percent of rural girls complete secondary education.
It has been so hard to keep this quiet, but we don’t have to anymore! Our Fall 2014 Youth Advocacy Training application is live! The training, taking place October 17-21, 2014 gives U.S. based 18-25 year olds an opportunity to learn about Education for All and the ways they can be agents for change in their communities.
It is spring in D.C. which means sunny days and cherry blossoms. It also means GCE-US Youth Training Advocacy season which always gets me super excited about the power of youth and the great things they are doing around the nation and the world. Our advocates just spent Monday on the Hill talking about education for all with their Members of Congress and we will be sharing their experiences over the next few months.
When the Roatan Bookmobile parks along the seashore at Flowers Bay, a throng of students gather excitedly at the entrance of Thomas McField School in Honduras. Painted with a mural of kids reading and colorful seaside scenes, the bus is a rolling advertisement for the joy of books and the power of education.
“Before, classes would begin in mid-April or late March, and only a few attended. We had to go from house to house so they would come to school,” said Professor Ezekiel Huamán, Director of Huacrán primary school. “This year, for the first time, the school year started on March 1st, with the attendance of all the boys and girls, and they came with their parents on first day, which was exciting for everyone.”
Library For All was founded because 250 million children across the developing world are not achieving the basics of literacy and numeracy, even after 4 years at school. We are a NYC-based non-profit [Go read logo] organization that exists to unlock knowledge to the developing world by providing access to a cloud-based digital library. Our mission is to increase educational opportunity for students in developing countries, giving them an opportunity to learn, dream and aspire to lift themselves out of poverty.
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to education" yet, 57 million children are currently out of school and denied this human right. There are many reasons why these children are out of school. Some come from poor families and are called on to work outside the home or watch siblings, some are malnourished, and others are out of school because they are disabled, a girl, a minority or a combination of other factors that conspire to keep them out of school.
For a long time educational researchers have found that one of the main determinants of a child's educational success, if not the most important, is the socioeconomic status of their family. For example, Young Lives research in Peru shows that by the time a child reaches his or her first birthday the family´s ‘wealth index' predicts the quality of their schooling as well as their academic achievement ten years on. Our research shows that coming from a poor, indigenous, or rural family, or having a mother with less than primary education - or worse still having all four - is strongly associated with poor educational quality and performance.