Remote, but not forgotten: UNICEF & Educate A Child launch education campaign in Kenya
Operation Come-To-School – is in line with the Kenya Ministry of Education’s 2014-2018 National Education Sector Programme that seeks to accelerate access to education for the most marginalized children. EAC has been a strong partner of UNICEF’s since 2012.
Kenya has nearly 1.5 million children, aged 6-13 years old, who are out of school due to poverty, child marriage and gender-related cultural practices.
Operation Come-To-School will focus on:
- Improving demand for education in order to increase school enrolment and attendance;
- Improving school facilities, including construction of classrooms, solar lighting and sanitation facilities;
- Strengthening in-school teaching and the learning process through a child-friendly school approach;
- Providing mobile schools and alternative basic education so that nomadic children can access education, and
- Strengthening county education systems.
“This agreement with UNICEF Kenya represents an important additional milestone to our efforts to ensure every out of school child in Kenya is given the opportunity to a basic education, said Dr. Mary Joy Pigozzi, Director of Educate A Child. “Operation Come-To-School builds on our existing successful partnerships in Kenya with the Girl Child Network and UNHCR, which have enrolled almost 68,000 out of school children. As we continue to push for universal primary education, it is through the local expertise of our partners that we will make a difference for children and communities across Kenya.”
EAC’s Operation Come-To-School will help out of school children in the arid and semi-arid lands of Wajir, Garissa, West Pokot, Turkana, Kajiado and Marsabit, together with those in informal urban settlements (Nairobi and Mombasa) the one coastal island of Lamu.
“UNICEF is committed to supporting the Government of Kenya to ensure that out of school children are not denied one of their most basic human rights, the right to education” said Pirkko Heinonen, acting interim Representative for UNICEF in Kenya. “We are delighted to partner with the Educate a Child program to make sure children out of school in Kenya can access education wherever they live.”
Educate A Child is one of the programmes run by Education Above All Foundation, the global initiative founded in 2012 by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. Worldwide there are 59 million children out of school and this is now a critical time to ensure those hard to reach children who remain out of school are not forgotten. A final push is needed by the global community, both financial and political, to ensure universal primary education for all is an essential element of sustainable development.
