On Tuesday, May 5, Save the Children and Doctor and Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist visited our school to launch the 2008 State of the Worlds’ Mothers Report. Who would think that learning to knit would bring so much excitement? Not the first second and third graders in Cordova, TN at Lamplighter Montessori School who knitted infant caps for Save the Children’s Caps to the Capital campaign!
Our students knitted the caps and sent them to Save the Children. Then they were invited to D.C to lobby with Save the Children. This week our school was chosen as The United States launch site for the 2008 report. Bright and early on Tuesday morning our students went on TV to promote awareness of the report. Later in the day, Senator Frist visited the school to talk about the simple and inexpensive ways children’s lives can be saved; warm caps for infants, hand washing, clean water and immunizations. The students showed Senator Frist the caps they had knitted in anticipation of another “Caps to the Capital” campaign.
Our Middle School students presented Save the Children, Senator Frist, Shelby County Mayor A. C. Wharton and ONE with student paintings to show our appreciation for the work being done to help children all over the world reach their first birthday.
-Terrie Sampson, Head of School, Lamplighter Montessori School
Since September, more than 1,400 college campuses have been battling it out in the ONE Campus Challenge. In the end, one school was unstoppable.
Western Kentucky University beat out the competition by recruiting almost 3,000 students to ONE, writing letters and placing calls to members of Congress and effectively reaching out to the Bowling Green community to join the movement.
On Tuesday night, ONE brought the bands Army of Me and Georgie James to the campus for a free concert. Lots of local news, like the WKU Herald and local TV station WBKO covered the event.
The WKU Herald quotes ONE student organizer Matt Vaughan:
“Way to go, Hilltoppers,” Vaughan said. “3,000 people at Western are now signed up (for the ONE Campaign). That’s an accomplishment no other university could match.” Vaughan said he was happy to sit back and enjoy the concert, but there was still work to be done to end world poverty.
“The spirit of change is alive and well here at WKU,” he said. “For years to come we’re going to have to keep rocking the movement. We can do this and we will do it.”
And WBKO ran this interview with Vaughan Tuesday night.
Note his quote:
“We beat out schools like Princeton and George Washington, all these schools that are known for being globally engaged and active. We showed that you don’t have to go to a rich and elite school in the East Coast to make a difference in this world, everyone can make a difference,” said Matt Vaughan, WKU student organizer.
Congratulations WKU! We can’t wait to see what you guys do next.
It’s Global Education week – and ONE is partnering with the Global Campaign for Education to push for action on the Education for All Act – legislation that would extend access to education to the 72 million children with no access to even basic education around the world.
Right now, the legislation has 66 co-sponsors in the House, but we need many more if we want to ensure that it’ll pass when it comes up for a vote later this year.
So afters weeks of anticipation the Global Campaign for Education Action Week is drawing to a close. I want to salute the thousands of educators and students who have already participated in the World’s Biggest Lesson in 48 of the 50 states.
During my time in the US for GCE Action Week I also had the privilege to meet and spend time with some of the smartest and dedicated young people in the United States. More than 50 high school and college students came from around the country to learn about why education saves lives and about the Education For All Act of 2007. I was so impressed by watching these articulate youngsters come together for this cause and asking the “older people†some really smart questions about the sort of arguments they hear about why the US should not give financing for education overseas.
The big Congress day arrived and the buzz was infectious. The youngsters took the bull by the horns and met with 75 representatives and senators in a frenzy of 100 meetings running between the Senate and the House and back again. In the middle of it all, they participated in a press conference with the impressive Honorary Chairperson for GCE Action Week Shakira and Congresswoman Nita Lowey. However, it was the youngsters coming from 12 different organizations including a large delegation from the ONE Campaign who really made me proud. They were sharp and passionate. I felt for the first time in a few years the US might just take the leadership on Education for All in the coming years with activists such as these.
-Anne-Marie Mujica, GCE international secretariat
[Top Photo: Western Kentucky University and Campbellsville Students Join Shakira and Congressional Leaders in Washington, DC on April 22 for Global Campaign for Education Action Week. Pictured from L to R: Jamie Lokey, Matt Vaughan and Charlie Harris. Photo Credit: Paul Morigi]
As part of Global Education Week, I wanted to highlight that Columbian pop star Shakira spoke to NPR yesterday after testifying on the Hill for the Education for All Act.
Shakira explains that in order to enroll boys and girls in schools, we need to do at least four things: Hire qualified teachers, provide uniforms and text books, abolish school fees and provide school meals.
She says: “I grew up in a country where unfortunately education is sometimes seen as a luxury, as a privilege, and not as a human right. This always bothered me. So this is personal to me. In the developing world, people who are born poor will die poor, and that is because of the lack of opportunities, opportunities that come from education. Education can actually save lives.”
If the Education For All Act passes, it would increase U.S. funding from $465 million to $3 billion by 2012 and help 77 million children around the world have access to education.
During the Global Campaign for Education’s Action Week, New York teacher Emily Bishop will be taking part in “the World’s Biggest Lesson” by teaching her students about the barriers that young people face all over the world in accessing a quality education.The Global Campaign for Education hopes to set a Guinness Book of World Record for the most people teaching the same lesson simultaneously. Below, her post and a video about the action.
I’m very lucky to teach in an after-school program, Wild Blue, where kids are taking advantage of learning opportunities beyond their everyday classroom lessons. I am challenged and inspired by my young charges, who want to know about everything from Shakespeare to cryptozoology (the study of mythological animals). As I prepare to teach “the World’s Biggest Lesson,” about the global commitment to achieve Education for All by 2015, and the gaping inequalities that still remain, I am also struck by how lucky the children I teach really are (however much they might complain about their math homework). As we get settled into our weekly sessions I hear stories of field trips to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, of classroom parties held for the publication of student-edited picture books, of basketball tournaments and class pets. Two of the girls from my “Myths and Legends from Around the World†class traveled together to the Arctic last spring, on a Wild Blue expedition, and spent time in an Inuit school. I think it would be tremendous if more kids had opportunities for life-changing experiences like that – but really, what could possibly be more life-changing (and world-changing!) than quality education for the 72 million children still missing out on school? I’m so excited to share that idea with the kids I work with, give them the chance to help break a world record, and help them add their voices to the Global Campaign for Education’s call for quality education for all.
You can help break the world record by registering your participation in the World’s Biggest Lesson now – www.campaignforeducationusa.org.
-Emily Bishop, Teacher and Activities Coordinator, Wild Blue, New York
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. Â 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
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
