Shakira Testifies for Education For All Act

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.

You can listen to the interview here.

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.

-Virginia Simmons

Big News: Education Numbers Up!

Big news emerged last week of exploding enrollments in primary schools across the globe. 41 million more kids were enrolled in primary school between 1999 and 2005, according to UNESCO’s recently released Global Monitoring Report.

The annual report, which tracks global progress towards achieving Education for All, found that sub-Saharan Africa has seen some of the most marked improvements in expanding access to education. 29 million more African kids were enrolled in school between 1999 and 2005, the world’s fastest increase in enrollment.

A lot of this progress was made possible due to increased spending on education by African governments and international donors. With savings from debt relief, for example, many governments were able to abolish primary school fees, which allowed huge numbers of kids to go to school for the first time. Such measures led to an additional 1 million children in school in Kenya and 3 million more children in school in Tanzania since 2003.

While these numbers are encouraging, much more progress is needed to achieve Universal Primary Education and meet the second Millennium Development Goal by 2015. Although Africa has made impressive increases in enrollment, 33 million primary school-aged kids are still out of school, 54% of whom are girls. Dropout rates are also high across the region - fewer than half of pupils reach the last grade of primary school in Benin, Chad, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda. Another challenge for African governments is to make sure that the number of teachers, classrooms and textbooks increase to accommodate the growing number of students.

-Nora Coghlan

Brownback: ONE is leading the way

On Tuesday, ONE staff and volunteers attended a presidential candidate educational forum at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

At the forum, Senator Brownback talked about his vision for improving education so that America can compete in the world’s market. He acknowledged the work ONE is doing in promoting the Education For All Act and fighting global poverty.

He looked in the center of the room where we were sitting and he said “there are organizations out there that are leading the way to get us where we should be, and ONE is definitely an organization that I am proud to support.”

After the event, Senator Brownback walked towards us, shook hands and thanked me for the work ONE is doing. Before posing for the picture, he asked where I was originally from. I told him that I was born and raised in Rwanda, and he continued saying that he visited Rwanda and Congo this year and saw with his own eyes the work that needs to be done.

-Natalie Sugira, IA ONE Outreach Coordinator

Construction Site: American Values Being Built

ONE members from Birmingham met with Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL-7) on Tuesday to discuss important legislation that would move the U.S. closer to our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The seven ONE activists took turns briefing Rep. Davis on three pieces of legislation: The Education for All Act, The Global Child Survival Act, and the GROWTH Act. (Rep. Davis had previously signed on as a co-sponsor for the Jubilee Act!)

Rep. Davis, commented that this legislation builds a “case for American values.” He said that there is a perception “that America is no longer interested in marginalized people around the world.”

Davis’ district consists of some of the poorest counties in the US where as much as 30-40% of the population live below the poverty line. Davis says he is sometimes asked how he can spend time on global poverty issues when the needs at home are so great. He responded that “in a strong country, addressing poverty abroad and poverty at home should not be an either/or issue but a both/and issue”

We also took the opportunity to talk with Rep. Davis about ONE Vote 08. Davis, a Harvard Law School classmate and supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, has been campaigning widely for Senator Obama, both on the campaign trail and on national cable news programs.

Our meeting ended with the requisite “white ONE banding” and group picture. Oh! And Rep. Davis said that he “would be happy to co-sponsor” these three important pieces of legislation. We hit the TRIFECTA!

-Elaine VanCleave, Birmingham, AL, ONE leader

[Pictured above: Mildred Sanford, Judy Donaldson, Betty Likis, Rep. Artur Davis, Nick Foster, Elaine VanCleave, Jeannette Bell, and Kelli Hepner]