It may be spring, but Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) is busy preparing for its fall campaign, Education: Her right, our future.

CJI will host its third Youth for Others (Y4O) Advocacy Symposium for youth from across Canada, aimed at raising awareness about girls’ education and pushing Canada to meet its commitment to support quality education at home and abroad as outlined in the 2030 Agenda. The symposium will be held on November 15-17, 2023, at Saint Paul University in Ottawa.

Education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is #4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. There is a global commitment to achieve universal, inclusive, and equitable education by 2030. However, as Pope Francis stated in his State of the World speech in January, “Education is prey to a crisis made even more acute by the devastating effects of the pandemic and by the troubling geopolitical scenario.” Global leaders, said the Pope, must “adopt courageous policies aimed at confronting the present ‘educational catastrophe’ and enact concrete decisions to achieve quality instruction for everyone by 2030.”

Girls experience this catastrophe more acutely. Worldwide, 129 million girls are out of school, says UNESCO. Countless studies show that girls’ education benefits all. It is, therefore, critical to invest in girls’ education.

Noluthando Honono – a postgraduate law student from South Africa who is conducting research on the impact of COVID-19 on students, particularly on girls – will be the keynote speaker at the symposium.