Perhaps the reason that quality education for tens of millions of poor children in the developing world remains a silent crisis is that there is never that specific moment when a CNN camera captures a child dying from lack of education. Yet make no mistake about it, children die every day from a lack of education. We know that in Africa even 5 years of education for a future mother increases the chance of her children reaching the age of five by 50 percent.  We know that a 16-year old girl who goes to school has a three to six times less chance of contracting HIV/AIDS than a girl who has never gone to school.

And yet, what inspires us is not that education is life-saving, but that it is life-enhancing.  A quality basic education is the foundation for all of the development issues that we care about.  It is the foundation for healthier families, higher wages, and better democracy. It is essential for helping the most vulnerable children – including those with disabilities, living in refugee camps, orphans, child laborers, and children affected by HIV/AIDS – along a path to a brighter future. Education is a human right, and all children, no matter where they are born, deserve a chance to receive a quality education. Currently over 72 million children and 226 million young people globally will be denied an education. This year we invite you to join millions of young people worldwide who will be participating in a truly global effort to raise awareness of the importance of a free quality education for all. The ONE Campaign is joining forces with the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to help shed light on this important issue and your participation can have a dramatic impact. More than 120 national GCE chapters around the world will organize events to raise awareness about this issue, encourage young people to get involved, and coordinate powerful actions and requests of world leaders.

Go to www.campaignforeducationusa.org to find out how you can get involved. You can also join our Facebook and MySpace groups to keep up to date on all Education Action Week activities.

Together we can make a difference. Thank you for all that you do!

Sincerely,

-Gene Sperling, US Chair, Global Campaign for Education & Director, Center for Universal Education, Council on Foreign Relations

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Global Campaign for Education, Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.