Launch of Save the Children’s Campaign on Education for children in conflict-affected countries

with

Henrik Häggström
Head of Knowledge Management Section, Save the Children Sweden

Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier
Ambassador, Swedish mission in Geneva

Jaap Doek
Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

Arnauld Akodjenou
Director, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR

Moderator:
Roberta Cecchetti,
Representative, Save the Children Alliance, Geneva

Tuesday 12th September 2006 at 1:30 pm

« La Pastorale » Route de Ferney 106, Genève

Save the Children will be releasing new statistics on education in countries affecting by armed conflicts on 12th September 2006. The new research reveals the devastating consequences of armed conflict on education in thirty countries. Schools are destroyed or commandeered by armed forces, teachers are killed or flee to escape the violence children can be recruited and forced to fight, and are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

Save the Children has identified a ‘blind-spot’ among international donors who are reluctant to commit funds for education in conflict-affected countries. The report finds that children living in these countries receive the least amount of aid for education because donors find it too difficult to deliver aid to them.

Over 40 countries across the world will today launch Save the Children’s biggest global campaign in its 85-year history. Among the campaigns international supporters are Archbishop Desmond Tutu and United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Jan Egeland.

Copies of ‘Rewrite the Future’ can be downloaded as of 12th September 2006 from: www.savethechildren.net/rewritethefuture

RSVP by 6 September: 022.919.2003 – associate@savethechildren.ch

• Download the PDF file of the official annoucement from Save the Children
• Download the PDF file of the press announcement for Geneva Press Club