UNITED NATIONS: A staggering 78 million girls and boys worldwide today “do not go to school at all” due to conflict, natural disasters, and displacement, while tens of millions more receive only sporadic education, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
In a video message, the UN Secretary-General backed a call for more funding for education in emergencies spearheaded by the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait (ECW), insisting that no one should be denied the opportunity to learn.
According to the secretary-general, 222 million children are currently handicapped from education. On the first day of the historic conference, 18 countries and private partners pledged $826 million to assist them.
Guterres said you have a right to a quality education regardless of who you are, where you live, or what barriers stand in your way while in an appeal for increased international efforts to ensure that more vulnerable children and youth have a chance to succeed.
In his remarks at the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva, the secretary-general noted that since its inception in 2017, the fund has trained 87,000 teachers and provided “the education they deserve” to seven million children in crisis.
UN welcomes International support
On the first day of the conference, as pledges from 18 countries and the private sector exceeded $826 million, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group, Gordon Brown, welcomed international support for learning for all as an investment in long-term peace.
He added that we are talking about the world’s most isolated, desolate, and neglected children. We’re talking about girls who are trafficked, forced into child labour, or forced into child marriage unless we can help them.
Somaya Faruqi shared her own painful story about education in Afghanistan, explaining that while she fled the country when the Taliban took power in August 2021, many of her “sisters” were left behind.
Her girlfriends are now unable to study because they have been barred from attending class by the de facto authorities, according to Faruqi, 20, who remains in contact with them and works as a women’s rights activist to raise awareness of their plight. She said that the situation is far worse than it appears in the news and on social media. Every day, she receive messages from friends telling her that they are being forced to marry regardless of their age or consent.
She added that she feel a deep sense of responsibility to support her sisters who are still in Afghanistan. Every day, she stay in touch with them, even though their situation is not good.
She listen to their stories, offer words of encouragement, and help connect them with resources when she can. She added that It is heart-breaking to see the struggles they face, but it only strengthens her resolve to fight for their rights and to help build a better future for all Afghan women.
Faruqi, originally from Herat in western Afghanistan, is now a mechanical engineering student at Missouri University of Science and Technology in the United States. As Captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, her interest in fixing things stemmed from helping her father fix cars, which sparked an interest in robotics. — APP
