Run-a-Way
In these days no one can question that education is one of the most important human right. However, still today the rates of illiteracy are extremely high, especially in specific regions of the world such as Africa.
Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement which wants to confront with illiteracy. It was set up in 1999 and made its first appearance during the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000. GCE’s purpose is to pressure governments all over the worldinto keeping their promises about educational rights. In this campaign take part organizations from all over the world which try to inform their counties’ people about this problem by organizing different actions like conferences and seminars. Up until now, more than 96 counties are participating in this global movement.
To be clear, I would like to quote more details about GCE function. The main principals of this movement are to make education a universal human right because only education has the ability to alleviate people from poverty and make them independent. How can they make it real? By pressing the governments. And how they will pressure the governments? By letting people know about the devastating consequences of illiteracy. And how GCE will let people know?
By organizing many smaller parallel campaigns which will support the main one. All those parallel campaigns are running predominantly on line through websites. Also, GCE has a dynamic presence on YouTube, on Facebook, on Pinterest and on Twitter.
Let’s not forget to mention that GCE has an official blog which is updated regularly. In addition, some members organize some actions in their countries as extension of the campaigns. For instance, in UK the parallel campaign “Sent my friend to school” (2005) was running in the countries schools. In this campaign took part over than 7.000 schools. The children learned in depth the issue of illiteracy.
Then they made cutouts children which were being represented the children all over the world which did not go to school. The cutouts were delivered to important political events. After that the children created their own posters or they found more innovative ways to inform other people about this issue and persuade them to get involved and motivated. Essentially, the children were forced to create and run their own campaign. This program has great success and now is repeated in UK with title “Every child needs a teacher” which is the latest parallel campaign which is included in GCE. Generally this is the way that GCE works, by organizing around the world pressing groups.
Every year, Global Campaign for Education arranges a meeting in which representatives from every organization/member participate. This meeting is known as Global Action Week and is the main focal point of GCE. In this week the national and regional campaign are presented. In addition every year Global Action Week focuses on different issue concerning education. For example in 2003 it focused on “girls’ education, in 2009 on “adult literacy and life-long learning” and in 2010 on “education financing”.
I have to mention that there is a campaign about every issue that are discussing in Global Action Week. A campaign about girls’ education is still running. Every single campaign is a step in order to be achieved the main goal which is “education for all”. This year Global Action Week will take place in few days and it is aboutthe lack of teachers that there is in many countries. The campaign that accompany this week is “Every child needs a teacher”
We believe that Global Campaign for Education (which is actually a movement now) is a successful campaign not only because they deal with a high quality problem but also because of the duration and the impact that it has. It increases its members and supporter day by day. If someone watches the global map, he will see that a great part of the planet participate in this campaign. (The countries which participate are with orange color)
GCE: Global Campaign for Education
PS: You are guessing correctly. No organizations from Greece are participating in the Global Campaign for Education. Only ActionAid promote this kind of action in Greece as a part of an international organization.
If you are reading this, it means you were one of the lucky ones who learned how to read. We usually take for granted that everyone can read. However, this is a wrong perception. Even today on the 21st century many people cannot read due to the fact they either cannot afford to pay the fees, they do not have access to schools, they are bound to working so that they can provide their family a financial support or there is a shortage of teachers. The number is striking; about 67 million kids worldwide cannot read. Why is it so important for people to learn reading?
First of all, going to school provides kids the knowledge on how to avoid poverty and crime. Did you know that young girls between the ages of 16 to 19 with the inability to read are six times more likely to have children out of wedlock? Did you know that the two thirds of children who are not capable of reading sufficiently end up in jail? Did you know that children who have a literate mother have 50% more chances of reaching the age of 15? It’s utterly horrifying but is the blatant truth. Illiteracy is the main factor kids choose the road of crime. For example, not being able to read cannot get you any job and as a result, you steal so you can survive.
Furthermore, GCE believes that in an increasingly knowledge-based economy, any exclusion from education will translate into growing poverty, inequality and deprivation. This applies not only to children but to adults as well. Adults cannot cope with the rapid changes in societies and finally give up their lives, metaphorically and literally.
The Importance of Being Literate
Reading means opening your world to new things, having the ability to adjust in any environment and gaining knowledge. The latter is the most important. Kids that go to school are able to identify right from wrong, criminal activity from rightfulness. Education is everyone’s right and no one can’t deny it. Take as example the 2009 movie called “Precious” which was based on book with the same name. The heroine has many problems that avoids solving. By the time she starts going to school and learns how to read she takes her life on her hands. Adults that learn how to read see this as an opportunity to get a second chance in life. Ex-criminals can start building a new crime-free life. Pour people may start having a small income and so on.
In developing countries things are slightly different. Illiterate kids are victims of diseases like HIV. While studying at school their chances to avoid diseases are maximized. They can be informed about protection. Moreover, reading is an essential skill which can help built communities and get out of the state of poverty. In another words, if kids know how to read, they can help their communities built a better future for all.
A campaign about this issue is of high importance. The general public must be updated with the circumstances kids are living in. They ought to be awakened and participate in order to help more and more children to attend school. As for adults, they should be given the right to attend school no matter what their age is in order to create a better future for their own.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that education should stop after people learn the basics but continue to exist throughout someone’s life because societies these days tend to change from one moment to another.
by Run-a-Way