On Saturday we renewed our efforts to generate media in NYC in support of a Global Education Fund. We're working both national and micro (i.e Cobble Hill Courier) venues and look forward to posting links to publications soon. We spent much of our meeting in silence, clicking away at our laptops doing the hard, but important, work of organizing our thoughts and feelings into a few hundred words.
Here's one letter from the meeting:
"The first Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients were announced by the Obama Administration this month, showcasing the President's ongoing commitment to affect real change. Three of the recipients, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, and Muhammad Yunus, are world renowned change agents who have devoted their lives to the betterment of the realities of others. All three have called for the creation of a Global Fund for Education to ensure that every child has a chance to go to school. They have shown their commitment for a world where "Back to School" season isn't just for retailers in the developed world; rather, it's a time for all children to look forward to a new year of renewed learning.
75 million children are still not in school in the world’s poorest countries. Over half are girls, and some 40 million are in countries affected by war or conflict. By several global declarations, education is a basic human right and essential to the development of healthy children, strong communities, and productive countries. Studies show that each additional year of education for a girl beyond grade three or four will lead on average to 20 percent higher wages and a 10 percent decrease in the risk of her own children dying of preventable causes. Prevention of HIV/AIDS is so strongly associated with school attendance that education has been called a “social vaccine” against the virus. Education truly is a panacea for society's problems.
President Obama should heed the call to action by these global moral leaders and create a multilateral $2 billion Global Fund for Education that he promised during his presidential campaign."
