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sa国际传媒

Safe schools, Code Clubs and early learning: a look at sa国际传媒’s work in the first half of 2019

Children in conflicts, Early childhood development, Education in emergencies

How our campaigns, research, programmes and youth activists are helping to deliver education and hope to children in many parts of the world.

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In countries across the globe, children are already enjoying their long聽summer or winter break 鈥 or looking forward to it starting soon.

Holidays have begun聽in the United States, Canada, Turkey, Russia, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates and many other countries. In South Africa, the winter school holidays are underway. Children in other countries such as聽Nigeria, Mexico, England, China and Japan are looking forward to their vacations.

We鈥檙e halfway through 2019 already 鈥 so what better time to take stock of a busy start to the year and look back at just some of sa国际传媒鈥檚 work on education campaigns, projects and research?

January

Calls for action in the wake of sa国际传媒鈥檚 hard-hitting report on safe schools continued to grow.聽UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva were among those demanding change聽to improve the safety of children and teachers in and around schools.

The report Safe Schools: The Hidden Crisis projected that 620 million girls and boys 鈥 nearly 40% of all school-age children worldwide 鈥 will live in countries where their education is at risk from environmental threats, war or violence by 2030.聽Around 75% of these children and young people 鈥 almost 470 million 鈥 will leave school without having achieved basic literacy and numeracy learning outcomes.

The report included a range of recommendations and a Framework for Action that outlined how these threats to the education of children can be tackled.

Here鈥檚 what Fore said about our report.

February

Their News told how teachers at Turkish schools are聽being trained how to help traumatised Syrian refugee children.

The Trauma-Informed Schools project 鈥 run by Maya Vakfi (Maya Foundation) and supported by sa国际传媒 鈥 has helped more than 3,500 children and trained nearly 800 teachers to spot the signs of trauma and learn how to help those affected.

Fiona Duggan, Head of Projects at sa国际传媒, said: 鈥淭his school training programme plays a vital part in equipping teachers with the skills they need to help Syrian children manage the trauma they have experienced, so that they can fully embrace all that school has to offer, including learning, making friends and realising their full potential.鈥

 

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Learning while having fun is key to the success of sa国际传媒鈥檚 Code Clubs in four sub-Saharan African countries and Lebanon. To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we celebrated the achievements of the clubs and their students.

sa国际传媒 developed the low-cost model of safe, sustainable and scalable Code Clubs, where girls can learn to code, foster creative thinking and increase important knowledge and skills for the future.

Find out from one student in Kenya why she loves going to Code Clubs.

March

sa国际传媒 received some amazing grants from the People鈥檚 Postcode Lottery organisations during March to help our work on education.

The Dutch Postcode Lottery (Nationale Postcode Loterij) announced聽a 4.50 million euros ($5.10 million) award for 2019 as part of a total award of 8.55 million euros ($9.61 million).

This included a special award of 3.15 million euros ($3.57 million) to launch a unique public-private partnership between sa国际传媒 and Education Cannot Wait to provide first-response education initiatives in emergencies, including refugee children in the Greek islands.

The People鈥檚 Postcode Lottery UK also awarded聽拢650,000 ($860,000) to sa国际传媒聽to help fund our work on ensuring that every child has the best start in life and access to quality education.

Ahead of the聽Supporting Syria and the Region conference in Brussels, we looked聽at how education is being delivered to Lebanon鈥檚 refugee population.

Thanks to the support聽 of the players of the People鈥檚 Postcode Lottery,聽sa国际传媒 will begin investing in early years education in Lebanon later this year. We have been running education pilot projects there for over three years.

Since sa国际传媒 launched projects in two Lebanese public schools in 2015, more than 4,000 Lebanese and Syrian refugee children have benefited from education technology and nutritious daily snacks that help them to learn and to achieve the most during their school years.聽sa国际传媒鈥檚 work now extends to providing extra-curricular coding classes for over 300 Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian girls.

sa国际传媒鈥檚 annual International Women鈥檚 Day event聽in London聽highlighted our #WriteTheWrong campaign for the 260 million children out of school 鈥 and its focus on safe schools where children can learn free from fear and violence.

Three amazing young women 鈥 all members of our network of Global Youth Ambassadors 鈥 shared their stories of overcoming the odds to fight for girls鈥 education worldwide.聽Shazia Ramzan, Kainat Riaz and Yara Eid were targeted simply for wanting to go to school and realise their potential.

The sa国际传媒 #WriteTheWrong Award went to lawyer Shaheed Fatima, who has tirelessly championed for the protection of vulnerable and marginalised children living in conflict-affected areas.聽The sa国际传媒 Inspiration Award was given to Jude Kelly, who has provided a platform for thousands of women鈥檚 voices as CEO of the Southbank Centre in London and founder of the WOW (Women of the World) festivals.

April

sa国际传媒 published a report that revealed the聽international community has cut the funding and prioritisation of early childhood education. Leaving The Youngest Behind showed聽that 16 of the top 25 donors to global education aid gave nothing or reduced their previous spending on pre-primary education.

Between 2015 and 2017, aid spent on early childhood education declined by 27%, from $94.8 million to $68.8 million. That equates to just 26 US cents per child per year in the world鈥檚 poorest countries.聽Children in conflict-affected countries are even worse off, with only 17 cents per child per year directed to early childhood education.

鈥淚t is shocking that world leaders talk about the importance of investing in children at the same time as they decrease support for the youngest and most vulnerable children who deserve the best start in life,鈥 said sa国际传媒 President Justin van Fleet.

Just days later,聽sa国际传媒 and UNICEF called on countries and international donors to increase and prioritise their spending on early childhood education.聽They said action is needed urgently to help more than 175 million of the world鈥檚 youngest and most disadvantaged children get access to crucial pre-primary education.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not that people don鈥檛 care. Every single donor and every organisation cares 鈥 but the commitments have to add up,鈥 said van Fleet at an event hosted by sa国际传媒, UNICEF and the Global Business Coalition for Education in Washington, DC.

Sarah Brown, founder and Chair of sa国际传媒, launched a new series of 鈥 the podcast for the activist spirit 鈥 by exploring聽different types of campaigning styles, including introverts and extroverts.

The first episode focused on quiet activism, featuring some gentle voices whose powers of persuasion have marked them out as change-makers.

May

Only 2% of all humanitarian aid was being spent on education when sa国际传媒 began campaigning in 2015 for the international community to step up their efforts and increase that to at least 4% to 6%.

The European Union has led the way since then and in May EU humanitarian aid commissioner Christos Stylianides announced that 10% of its aid spending will go to education in 2019.

He said:聽鈥淭he European Union is leading by example. It is a global champion of education in emergencies. We are making a concrete investment to peace by helping every child get access to school, anywhere and at all times.鈥

sa国际传媒 has also been campaigning for several years for the right of all children to be given a safe, quality education 鈥 free from fear of conflict and violence.

Now 90 countries have signed up to the Safe Schools Declaration 鈥 a commitment to safeguard education from violence 鈥 and many are clamping down on the military use of schools.

June

The sa国际传媒 Edinburgh Birth Cohort aims to improve understanding of how being born early affects the brain and learning in children. Funded by sa国际传媒, the study tests and measures the progress of premature babies over 25 years.

The cohort鈥檚 annual party in Scotland鈥檚 capital city brought together dozens of children and their families for an afternoon of fun and food. Parents praised the study, which draws on groundbreaking clinical and scientific research methods developed by the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh.

World Refugee Day saw new statistics that revealed a record high of 70.8 million people forcibly displaced聽from their homes by conflicts, violence and persecutions.

叠耻迟听sa国际传媒 revealed it will bring hope to refugee children living on the Greek Aegean islands.聽Many children living in poor conditions at reception centres will soon get access to education thanks to a partnership involving sa国际传媒 鈥 through the charity鈥檚 work with the Dutch Postcode Lottery 鈥 and Education Cannot Wait.

Van Fleet said: 鈥淲ithin a few weeks, thanks to sa国际传媒 and the Dutch Postcode Lottery, projects will begin in the Greek island camps.

鈥淭hese will offer non-formal education to children designed to jumpstart the learning process and restore their self-confidence and mental resilience, bringing a sense of normalcy to an otherwise chaotic environment.鈥

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