Qatar group helps deliver education to 10m in war-torn regions

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, UN Secretary General António Guterres and leaders from the United Nations, NGOs, and global industry, including President of Ghana and model philanthropist Naomi Campbell, celebrate an important milestone in addressing a growing global challenge in New York

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, UN Secretary General António Guterres and leaders from the United Nations, NGOs, and global industry, including President of Ghana and model philanthropist Naomi Campbell, celebrate an important milestone in addressing a growing global challenge in New York on 28 April, 2018 [EAA]

With the number of primary age out of school children skyrocketing in recent years to 63 million, an ambitious international programme supported by the Qatari foundation, Education Above All (EAA), is delivering education to ten million children blighted by war and poverty.

The milestone was announced last week in New York by the UN Secretary General António Guterres and Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser. Both informed international leaders that the programmes overseen by EAA and its various partners had reached a significant milestone in delivering education to marginalised out of school children in some of the most challenging situations around the world.

According to UNESCO, the total number of primary age out of school children is now 63 million, of which the wider Middle East and North Africa region accounts for almost six million (nine per cent). Over the past six years, EAA’s campaign has helped children overcome the significant barriers that are preventing them from accessing education. Part of that work addresses the gender gap, as well as fostering the skills children need to gain meaningful employment, and the opportunity to create brighter futures for themselves, their families and communities.

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One of EAA’s programmes has already enrolled 6.6 million out of school children around the world including a record 1.6 million children across the Middle East. EAA has implemented almost ten projects with international and local NGOs, development agencies, development banks and the private sector across six countries in the region, including Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Yemen.

Speaking at the UN last week, Guterres said: “Our dream of a sustainable future cannot be realised if we do not support children’s dreams to gain an education. When we educate a child we give her more than books, papers, pencils or a calculator. We give her the tools, skills and imagination she needs to shape the world around her and to make her community, and her society, better, more prosperous and more peaceful.”

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Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, chairperson of EAA, said: “We did not achieve this remarkable goal by snapping our fingers or by just writing cheques. I have watched as schools were built from scratch… I have listened to lessons taught under the shade of a tree.”

The desire to learn is one of the most powerful forces of human nature. And it is in every child. Helping children fulfil that innate desire is the responsibility of us all.

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