Not soon after arriving to Argentina, I became aware of Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an NGO based in South Africa that fights for education rights for all children. (See below for more details). GCE put me in contact with the two main organizing entities in Argentina: Campana Argentina por el Derecho a la Educación (CADE), a network of a dozen or so non-profits working on education issues, and the Confederación de Trabajadores de la Educación de la República Argentina (CTERA). Since then I have written a funding proposal, held several meetings with Rotarians and other possible supporters/funders in Argentina, and made contact with folks back in the States to help support this year's and future campaigns in Argentina. Like many of you may know, fundraising can be a process. However, the process has begun, and I am very optimistic about it. As the efforts develop, I will keep you all posted.
The main awareness initiative this year, Global Action Week, will take place next week. The Argentine campaign this year focuses on calling attention to the growing exclusion from education that exists in Argentina for children based on gender, race, physical disabilities, and other factors. There will be activities throughout the country to bring awareness to the issue and demand that decision-makers fulfill the education rights of children in Argentina.
I will be posting footage of the various activities that take place during the week on my blog. I have posted a video made by the folks at GCE. If you are interested, please take a few minutes to watch the video at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZJol9-olbA and maybe think about how a school or organization with which you work could get involved next year or even this year. Happy viewing!
GCE began in 1999 in anticipation of the Dakar World Education Forum (DWEF) in April of 2000 to 1) guarantee civil society a voice in establishing the Education for All goals and strategies and 2) monitor the commitment of 185 world governments to achieve the fore-mentioned objectives. GCE received a mandate from the DWEF to campaign for the Education for All goals until their deadline in 2015. GCE promotes quality education as a basic human right and pressures the entire international community to fulfill its pledge to provide free, compulsory public education for everyone, particularly those people most marginalized in the world. These goals that GCE monitor also align with the Millennium Development Goals related to education established by the United Nations in 2000.
One of GCE’s key initiatives is the Global Action Week (GAW), which takes place throughout the world. Each year the GAW mobilizes millions of children, teachers, education activists and practitioners, governmental leaders, and politicians around a specific educational theme to call international attention to the continued gaps in access to quality education. The outcome of this international mobilization has included the passage of rights-based legislation in several countries, allocation of millions of dollars to education by various governments and international development agencies, and bringing education rights to the forefront of public policy agendas.
For a full list and description of the Education for All goals, please go to http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all/dakfram_eng.shtml.
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