EUROPA/SPAIN - 130 million of the world’s boys and girls will never have the chance to go to school: Manos Unidas Campaign to guarantee all children at least primary education to enable them to be the artificers of their development

Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - “You can’t read? We can change this" is the slogan of a campaign launched by Manos Unidas Catholic NGO in Spain which promotes development in poor countries. The Campaign aims to help reach the second of the ‘Millennium Goals’ adopted by the United Nations Organisation: "Universal Primary Instruction". The campaign fits also into the framework of a UN Decade for Primary Instruction (2003-2012) and the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio on the development of peoples which states "basic education is the first objective for any nation seeking to develop itself. Lack of education is as serious as lack of food; the illiterate is a starved spirit" (PP 35).
The Campaign 2007 presentation reads "education enables people to be artificers of their development it is a factor social integration and personal enrichment. It facilitates participation in community life, fosters health and sanitation, promotes equal respect for women and helps formation of the future generation."
Manos Unidas states that 130 million boys and girls in the world will never go to school; 960 million adults are illiterate; in many places the right to education is violated by war, forced labour, sexual exploitation. Manos Unidas underlines that a mere 1 percent reduction of annual military expenses would be sufficient to guarantee universal; primary education.
The goals of the Campaign are the following: offer all children the opportunity to go to school and learn to read and write; work effectively to eradicate all forms of child labour and recruitment of child soldiers, prevent children from leaving school early; increased funding for education and better management of these funds; that governments put public expenses education before military expenses.
The main countries to which the campaign is oriented are Sudan, Ecuador and Cambodia. In Sudan Manos Unidas supports 40 education programmes for displaced persons living in camps in Khartoum, Wau and El Obeid. Manos Unidas volunteers help build schools, train teachers and promote education to peace. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 7/2/2007; righe 30, parole 411)