Today, June 16, is the Day of the African Child, a day commemorating when in 1976, thousands of students in South Africa claimed their educational rights. In 2014, we utilize this celebration to call upon our world leaders to pledge their support of education for all. This month, our leaders will be held accountable for finding the nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls and victims of brutally unnecessary kidnappings in Chibok, and for making a monetary commitment to the Global Partnership for Education at the pledging conference in ten days time. This morning in Addis Ababa, a youth takeover shook the African Union, and a youth resolution calling for global support of a safe and universal education was passed by children, for children.
Nationally, we have a simple goal: Our ask is that President Obama and head of USAID, Rajiv Shah, pledge $250 million over two years to support the only multilateral international fund for education. GPE is, with this and other donations for their replenishment fund, prepared to put 29 million primary aged children in school, single-handedly reducing the current 57 million without schooling by half. As the end of 2015 and the deadline for Millennium Development Goal 2 approaches, such efforts are indispensable. I, and many others I know, called the white house this morning to call attention to this opportunity and ask the president to increase his support for GPE.
This weekend, I saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. I disembarked from the ferry while on a conference call hosted by RESULTS with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, sponsor of a House letter to President Obama regarding America's responsibility to GPE, which was signed by 81 members. She said that, while perhaps the issue of education for all (EFA) was important to others for different reasons, her view is that education is a human right. This makes us all obligated to work towards it. She also said, when advocating for increased funding for global education initiatives, to remind policy makers of the ways in which EFA helps us locally. EFA is, in fact, an issue of national security, because societies in which education is prevalent and of good quality are less susceptible to violence. EFA is of economic importance, too. Getting every child into primary school isn't something the US can ignore, even though few of the 57 million lie within our borders.
As I hear this, I see the Statue of Liberty facing away from America, towards the developing world, towards the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." While we may have forgotten our connection to others overseas, she has not. The freedom which she symbolizes cannot exist until children everywhere are able to think critically and have the skills necessary to survive in this world. She waits in anticipation of our role in their success.
Today, I would like not to forget what good our prosperity can bring to the world. For what good is our well-being, if we do not share it with those in need? What is our Liberty, if she can turn to those without her and not speak a word?
