Sharing Web Resources

The organization that caught my attention and chose to explore is Save the Children, an international organization. To give a brief history about the organization, in 1919, the Save the Children Fund was founded in England by Eglantyne Jebb, an Oxford-educated teacher and sociologist to aid children in war-ravaged central Europe. “We cannot leave defenseless children anywhere exposed to ruin — moral or physical,” she said. “We cannot run the risk that they should weep, starve, despair and die, with never a hand stretched out to help them.” Following her vision, Save the Children USA was established in 1923. 

The mission of the organization is to ‘inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in in the lives of children in the United States and around the world’. Their philosophy is based the concepts of self-help and self-reliance — the belief that development is a process by which people take charge of their own lives. They help children and families help themselves by providing families and communities with the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty. Presently, the organization works in more than 50 countries working in the areas of child protection, child survival, education, emergency response, health and nutrition, HIV and AIDS. 

            Although I have subscribed to their newsletter I have not received as yet. However, while browsing through the website, I noted their work in the area of education. The website describes education as ‘the road that children follow to reach their full potential’. Save the Children recognizes that there are many children throughout the world who don’t have access to quality education for various reasons; poverty, conflict, disasters etc. and therefore implements education programs to support children’s learning at home and at school. Their current programs focus on increasing education for girls in parts of the world where access is limited, teaching children basic math skills needed for daily life through the Numeracy Boost program, addressing the emotional well-being of children affected by disease, conflict, natural disaster through the HEART program- Healing and education through the arts and literacy programs to increase reading skills in rural America. With children like Pakistani schoolgirl Malala at the forefront advocating for education for all children including children affected by war and conflict, Save the Children is calling on world leaders to criminalize attacks against education and increase humanitarian funding for education. Their report ‘Attacks on Education: The impact of conflict and grave violations on children’s future’ address the hidden crisis in countries affected by conflict. 

Listening to Malala whose only crime was her desire to learn, address the UN was very moving and eye opening. It shows the struggles that children throughout the world of varying ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds continue to face in gaining their rightful access to any education and why the work of organizations such as Save the Children is so crucial for bringing about needed change.

Save the Children:  

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm

Save the Children Report – Attacks on Education:

http://www.savethechildren.org/atf/cf/%7B9def2ebe-10ae-432c-9bd0-df91d2eba74a%7D/ATTACKS_ON_EDUCATION_FINAL.PDF

Malala Yousafzai's address to the UN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtprX8i2k-Q