Today, January 24, is the International Day of Education, and Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) reaffirms its commitment to advocate for access to quality and safe education in the Global South, particularly for women and girls.
The theme for this year, Learning for lasting peace, finds expression in CJI-supported projects. These include Jesuit Refugee Service Syria, which offers non-formal education programmes for vulnerable children in the country, who continue to suffer from the devastating impacts of the decades-long Syrian conflict that began in 2011 and from two recent earthquakes. About 6.4 million children (50% girls) need education assistance in Syria, according to UNICEF. “This includes two million out-of-school children, nearly 40% of whom are girls.”
In South Sudan, CJI supports an initiative of the Jesuits Eastern Africa Province, which prioritizes education because of its crucial role in peace and social transformation. The province runs a secondary school, a teacher training college, and an agricultural institute, and conducts vocational training and peace initiatives under the program Sowing Seeds of Transformation.
War and conflict disrupt children’s education. Girls living in conflict areas are more than twice as likely to be out of school than those who do not, according to UNICEF.
Children who are forcibly uprooted from their homes must have access to education where they now live. Education helps reduce poverty and inequality, discourages child marriage, and offers social and economic benefits. Educating girls and boys contributes to more stable, productive, and peaceful societies that give people the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
