We’ve educated 10 million marginalised children in just five years: HH Sheikha Moza

Education Above All (EAA) Foundation Chairperson HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser announced it has achieved the ambitious goal of educating 10 million marginalised children within a short span of five years.

The major milestone was reached through EAA’s programme Educate A Child (EAC) and its worldwide partners, reported Gulf Times.

In 2012, HH Sheikha Moza and EAA’s partners had set out to achieve the goal of reaching 10 million out of school children in some of the most challenging situations around the world. That has come to fruition now.

An EAA event, co-organized with UNICEF, was held at the New York Public Library to celebrate the achievement. It gathered world leaders and high-level figures such as the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo, Permanent Representative from Qatar to the UN Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani and Executive Director of UNICEF Henrietta Fore.

Sheikha Moza said she was delighted at helping 10 million get education.

“Experts told me that educating six million children would be impossible. But, I refused to believe it. One advisor told me to set a goal that was more realistic. I thought I heard him say, optimistic, so I set a target of 10 million!” HH Sheikha Mozah, was quoted as saying by The Peninsula.

HH Sheikha Moza thanked all EAA partners who helped provide education to 10 million children. She recalled the start of the programme in 2012, when she wondered it would be possible to educate at least 10% of the 60 million young children were out of school at that point.

“Most of them came from the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in the world. Many had been displaced due to conflict; others were refugees, some were fleeing poverty or natural disasters. And none of them were in school,” she was quoted as saying by Qatar Tribune.

HH Sheikha Moza said that the next five years will see EAC work to expand its existing programmes and implement new ones.

“We’ll take what we’ve learned and apply it to the new challenges we face. Going forward, our efforts will require more than money and good intentions. Educating these children will require a real commitment from governments, from the private sector and from the international community. It’ll take all of our courage, strength and resilience,” she said.

HH Sheikha Moza noted that the EAC participated in 82 partnerships across 50 countries since the beginning of the project. They leveraged together a $1.8bn investment. A third of that sum was from the Qatari government, stressing that the effort was a truly global one.

“We reached out to the private sector for unique expertise and much-needed resources. We worked with ministries, public agencies, development banks and community groups. We worked with NGOs, big and small. And we worked with great multi-national organisations like UNICEF,” HH Sheikha Moza said.

HH Sheikha Moza touched upon the transformative power of education which she saw in places like Bangladesh, Palestine, Turkey, Sudan, Brazil and Kenya.

“I’ve watched as schools were built from scratch, and abandoned buildings turned into classrooms. I’ve seen children mastering computer skills on refurbished laptops, and I’ve listened to lessons taught under the shade of a tree and homework done by candlelight.”

“Now there’re those who say, yes, education is important, but first we must pave these roads, or train these doctors or build these houses. I know there’re competing priorities. But, I say give me 10 reasons why educating the worlds out of school children can wait, and I’ll give you 10 million reasons why it can’t,” HH Sheikha Moza added.