EAGLE BUILDERS FOUNDATION, a non-governmental and not-for-profits organization joins campaign for Global Education First Initiative Youth Advocacy Group and calling for youth to reinforce advocacy for every child of schooling age in Nigeria to be in school. The organization make case for NIGERIA EDUCATION FIRST PROJECT (NEFP)to mobilize young people around the 36 States of Nigeria and Abuja to facilitate Free and Compulsory Education Policy in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of the organization, Ubong David frown at a report by British Broadcasting Corporation that 10 million Nigerian children are out of school while Pakistan recorded 7 million out of school children. He submitted that the report is very embarrassing and damaging considering the resources available in the country. He calls on youth leaders, activists, education communicators and policy makers to join hand in advocating for every out of school child in Nigeria to return back to school.
He submitted that with the visit of Pakistani Education Activist, Malala Yousafzai to Nigeria in solidarity for the Chibok girls that were kidnapped some three months ago by terrorists group, Boko Haram in government school in Borno State, there is need to strengthen advocacy for return of 10 million children back to school.
The NIGERIA EDUCATION FIRST PROJECT will be launch soon to kick-start the campaign so that by 2019, all Nigerian children will be in school. According to Ubong David who quoted United Nations Secretary General's statement on Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) reiterated the need for all stakeholders to get involved in sending back every child to school. He commended the governor of Akwa Ibom State for signing into law the Child Rights Act and his Free and Compulsory Education Policy which has change the status of children from Akwa Ibom State. He therefore urge other state governors in Nigeria to emulate governor Godswill Akpabio.
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| Book to support Nigeria Education First Project (NEFP) |
He stated that he will commence the campaign with the printing of Magazine profiling Exceptional Children in the globe among whom are Malala Yousafzai to inspire and motivate Nigerian children to see them as role models. He mentioned that the Magazine, The Exceptional is targeting at least 50,000 children across the country and will expand it by stages.
He therefore call for philanthropists, institutions, government and private citizens who believes that every child deserves education to support in printing the Magazine and Book to launch the campaign. According to him, "Every Child is a Hero and if Malala can survived attempt on her life by the Pakistani soldiers and she is doing greatly well by promoting education of children every where she goes, then Nigerian children can do same," he said.
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| The Exceptional Magazine to kickstart the campaign |
Ubong vows to use everything at his disposal to ensure that his campaign initiative, NIGERIA EDUCATION FIRST PROJECT in line with the Global Education First Initiative succeeds.
Youth Call to Action: Education for All Can Be Achieved
Presented by the Global Education First Initiative Youth Advocacy Group19 April 2013 in Washington, DC
How many of you have children? And for those who don't have children, how many of you have children in your lives – maybe a niece or nephew, student or mentee? Can you imagine them even having the possibility of being where you are today without access to books, quality teachers, safe learning environments, relevant education; if they were forced into child labour, early marriage or if they were forced to become child soldiers? Unfortunately, we come from communities where young people are experiencing situations just like those.
We are the Youth Advocacy Group, which was created to advise the United Nations Global Education First Initiative with the deliberate understanding that Youth have to be an integrated part of creating one world at school. The 15 of us were chosen from hundreds of nominations from all over the world, to represent youth worldwide.
Youth leaders, because of our experiences, were selected to use our passion to elevate the thoughts and concerns of young people and to work to make sure that our brothers, sisters, friends, neighbours and peers will have access to education. But we aren't just young people; we are youth with both personal and technological expertise in everything from gender equality, education in conflict settings, children with disabilities, indigenous education, to sexual and reproductive health and rights. We believe in Education for All and are lucky we have a champion and advocate in UN Special Envoy Gordon Brown.
Over the last 6 months of intensive conversations within the global education community, we are proud of our many advocacy achievements and are grateful to have been given a platform to raise the voices of young people. Through collaboration and partnerships, we have mobilised youth participation across the recently run online, in-country and thematic Post 2015 Consultations. We have galvanized our peers to stand in solidarity with Malala to tackle the injustice and inequity in education.
And what is it that we want? We want young people to be involved in all the decision-making processes that contribute to a world at school. We are thankful that Gordon Brown has given us a seat at the table. We want you to give this same opportunity to the youth in your respective communities. Because by listening to the voice of young people you are listening to the people who are and who will be directly affected by the decisions you make from now until 2015 and beyond.
If we had fulfilled the commitments we made in 2000, we would not be before you today. Now that we have less than 1000 days to realize the second MDG of universal primary education, we are making it clear that we too are investing all our time, resources, effort and power to ensure that we meet this goal. Because we believe it can be done and we’re asking you to help us. As representatives of young people we have identified a few areas where we will put our pressure.
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| Youth Advocacy Group of GEFI |
We can only hope that these past three days have been as empowering and inspiring for you as they have been for us. And do not think for even a moment that we have not been monitoring the outcomes and what has been said, because we have, and not to scare you, but you will be held accountable, because our progress depends solely on everyone's willingness and ability to commit to what they said they would do. Nothing is more depressing than progress hindered because of inaction.
We are not saying it will be easy, these things never are, but by all means accessible to us, we intend to continue the momentum by working with groups in our prospective regions and around the world, with special focus on the 8 countries, to help youth understand their government’s commitment so that they too can hold them accountable.
On July 12th, Malala’s birthday, we will be back in full force, with thousands of our friends around the world in tow, to show that young people care about the world that we will eventually inherit by taking over the UN General Assembly. We will pass a new resolution on youth education priorities led by Malala herself.
But to whom much is given, much is expected, so our promise to you is that we in our work will be accountable to you and to the young people around the world whose voices are critically needed in this debate. This is not simply rhetoric or purely ambition. This group, in spite of its youthfulness, has the experience, the knowledge, the passion, and the connections through its partners and networks all around the world to make the difference.
But we do need your help. We need your help to help us enable the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged children to be the strongest advocates against the injustices that they face in the world. Please trust in youth. Thank you very much.
Youth Advocacy Group
Twitter: @GIE_YAG
Facebook: www.facebook.com/youthadvocacygroup
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