On Thursday the Global Campaign for Education went to Wembley Stadium. Ian Sullivan was there with a host of footballers for the launch of the 1 goal: Education For All campaign.
It’s not very often that I get to go to Wembley, and it’s not very often that I get to go to a press conference with Her Royal Highness Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, UNICEF’s Eminent Advocate for children, Gary Lineker and lots of international footballers, including the South African football captain Aaron Mokoena.
I was here with the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) for the launch of 1 Goal: Education For All.
This campaign, run in partnership with FIFA, will run all the way to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The aim is simple but world-changing. We want world leaders to keep their promises to make sure that every child gets an education.
75 million children don’t go to school - 61.4 million of those are girls. That’s the equivalent of every child of primary school age in the UK, Western Europe and the USA not going to school and never learning to read and write. Scary. Even more scary as the links between poverty and lack of education are well established.
As a press conference newby, I decided to seize the moment and get my question in. So I asked Aaron Mokoena what difference an education had made to him. Thanks to his football talent and his mum, who understood the importance of education, he had been able to complete his studies. He was one of the lucky ones.
In the last 5 years the Global Campaign for Education has achieved a lot - 40 million extra children around the world are now receiving a basic education. But more needs to be done.
And what better way to get politicians all over the world to listen than to use the most popular sport in the world. A game that is played, watched and passionately followed from the shanty-towns of Rio De Janeiro to the streets of Soweto.
This campaign will create a legacy that will live beyond the goals and games of the World Cup. In a few months time children all over the world will be imitating their heroes in parks, in streets, back gardens and just about anywhere that they can. Let’s hope they will be playing in school playgrounds too.
So celebrity endorsement will ensure column inches, but the most effective speaker had to be Gugu, a nine year old girl from Johannesburg. She stood in front of us all, unfazed by the flashlights and TV cameras, and told us she loved going to school, and when she grows up she wants to be a doctor.
So, sign your name on behalf on a child who can’t and let our leaders know that their warm words aren’t enough. We want them to take action that gets 75 million children into school.
Tags: 1goal Campaign, 2010 FIFA World Cup, Aaron Mokoena, FIFA, Gary Lineker, GCE, Global campaign for Education, join 1 Goal, Jordan, Queen Rania, UNICEF, Wembley Stadium
