#EveryChildInSchool

On Thursday, January 23rd at 3pm (EST) people were invited to join the Facebook Live event with Seventh-day Adventist Church in order to learn more about the joint campaign “Every Child. Everywhere. In School” of ADRA and all church departments – Women’s Ministries, Children’s Ministries, Family Ministries, Youth Ministries, Education, Publishing. The participants in the program talked about their common education projects and why they need 1 million signatures.
The signatures will be presented to governments, companies, to show that Adventists care about education and that they are calling for greater investments in education globally and increased access to quality education for all children. Nothing makes more difference in the world than education, as it changes lives for the better.
262 million children around the world cannot go to school and that has devastating results especially for girls. There are 131 million girls worldwide out of school. Girls are 1.5 times more likely than boys to be excluded from primary school. That means that 15 million girls of primary school age will never have the opportunity to learn to read and write in primary school, compared to about 10 million boys.
Women’s Ministries are devoted to supporting girls so that they can get an education that will enable them to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
Girls who become pregnant at an early age often find themselves unable to attend school, even when they want to after childbirth. One third of girls in the developing world are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before the age of 15.
In developing countries, rural girls are twice as unlikely to attend school as urban girls 19. This is because in remote or rural areas, there is often a greater prevalence of social and cultural barriers, labour requirements and the distance that keep girls out of school.
Poverty forces many families to choose which of their children to send to school. Girls often miss out due to belief that there is less value in educating a girl than a boy. Instead, they are sent to work or made to stay at home to do domestic chores, or are married off.
Many girls do not turn up to school during their menstrual cycle, or drop out of school altogether once they start menstruating. Girls in Sub-Saharan Africa miss 20% of their school year once they start menstruating due to lack of appropriate menstrual hygiene education or toilet facilities.
Ten years ago the “End It Now” campaign to end violence against women and girls was spearheaded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Department of Women’s Ministries and supported by ADRA. This new campaign is a further call to action for all supporters to stand up with this Adventist-led movement and put into practice the principles we hold true.
Conflict, natural disasters, and other emergencies severely disrupt children’s education. Children in fragile, conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to be out of school than children in non-conflict affected countries. Refugee children are five times more likely to be out of school than non-refugee children.
Between 93 million and 150 million children are estimated to live with disabilities. Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalized and excluded groups of children, and are often ‘invisible’ due to high levels of stigma, poverty and vulnerability. Disability has a greater impact on access to education than gender, household economic status, or rural/urban divide.
Help us get to 1 million signatures! Sign the petition here: inschool.adra.org/petition
“I want world leaders to commit to ensuring that all children, adolescents and youth have access to free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education.” Photo: ADRA