Better Future for Every Child

Here at No Limits we understand the importance of a safe community and access to education for each individual. The key to a peaceful country is educating its youth.

We applaud efforts to expand access to education. At our 2009 Public Policy Conference, one of our speakers was an individual who has started her own foundation to open schools for girls in Kenya. Her name is Kakenya Ntaiya and her foundation is Kakenya’s Dream. Check out her website here.

Worldwide, 72 million children of primary school age are not in school – the vast majority of whom are girls. More than 226 million more children are denied a secondary school education. The lack of educational opportunity not only hurts children, but has been linked to decreased health outcomes and reduced economic gains.

- Global Campaign for Education

Nujood is a Yemeni girl, and it’s no coincidence that Yemen abounds both in child brides and in terrorists (and now, thanks to Nujood, children who have been divorced). Societies that repress women tend to be prone to violence….

For Nujood, the nightmare began at age 10 when her family told her that she would be marrying a deliveryman in his 30s. Her new husband forced her to drop out of school (she was in the second grade) because a married woman shouldn’t be a student. At her wedding, Nujood sat in the corner, her face swollen from crying….

… The United States last month announced $150 million in military assistance for Yemen to fight extremists. In contrast, it costs just $50 to send a girl to public school for a year — and little girls like Nujood may prove more effective than missiles at defeating terrorists.

- Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times March 4, 2010

Millions of children ages 5 to 13 are estimated to engage in child labor today; many at work that does not just keep them away from school, but also endangers their personal safety, mental and physical health. Bonded or indentured labor contracts use corporal punishments and threats of violence if children attempt to leave; while others endure practices such as trafficking, the forced recruitment of child soldiers, using for offering children for prostitution, production of pornography.

As we work to open education for every child, we must also continue to work to end the exploitation of child labor.

Education raises incomes, reduces infant mortality, slows the spread of HIV/AIDS, and is key to lifting millions out of poverty, yet today 77 million children around the world don’t attend school because neither their families nor their governments have the resources necessary to provide them with a basic education.

The Education for All Act would improve facilities, train teachers, provide lunch programs and empower those countries placing a priority on education.  

- The One Campaign

Resources

Education for Boys and Girls

• Millennium Development Goals
• Advocates for Youth (comprehensive sexuality education)
• Overlooked and Uninformed (comprehensive sexuality education)
• Department of Labor: list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor in 2009
• Why girls’ education is important