Education Can Change the World!

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Education was always of utmost importance in my home growing up. My parents pushed it and always told us how our education will better our lives. I guess I got that, but not really. As I have grown up and seen the benefit of a well-educated mind I am only just beginning to understand what they really meant. I graduated from high school and from college with honors. I have felt like the knowledge and skills gained from these degrees has given me confidence, abilities and opportunities that I would not have received otherwise. I have spent time teaching in the public school system as well as homeschooling my own children for years. Now, the value of knowledge means so much more to me than it did when I was younger. I want my kids to be given just as many opportunities in their lives, so I am helping them to gain an education. I feel that the poverty around the world is directly related to education. The more educated a person is, the more likely that person will be to rise out of poverty and change their situation. Pus, it will change not just your own life but that of your children and grandchildren Education changes lives. Education can change the world!  I am going to tell you a little about a great company who is making a difference in educating children around the world. (Have you heard of IKEA?  It’s one of my favorite stores & they are doing good things!)

Have you ever read the book The Rent Collector?  This book, while not entirely true is based on a true story of a family in Cambodia who lives in a garbage dump, literally. They scavenge through the trash to find things of value that they can sell and earn a living. They have a son who is ill and the mother is trying all she knows to try and heal him. It is only when she begins to learn to read (from her mean and nasty landlord) that she is able to change her situation and make their lives better.

This is a powerful story and one that is repeated all around the world. One-third of children around the world do not complete five years of schooling- the minimum needed for basic literacy skills. Studies show that even one ear of education increases a person’s earnings worldwide by 10%. The more you know the more you are able to better your life.

After the typhoon in the Philippines, my father spent a lot of time over there with a non-profit organization to help build things back up. One of the goals was to help people restore their lives with work and homes and education. He told me about a time they had gathered a group of men together to see what skills they had to help them acquire work. The biggest need at the time was construction. These men did not have the knowledge or the tools needed to fill the necessary jobs. So, a training program was started to help these men learn to build homes and also to help them earn money to buy tools. Once they had these skills and supplies, they were able to support their families and escape their poverty-stricken lives. It was education and job-training that raised them up out of the rubble. If this education is started when they are young, imagine what they could do for their families and their countries!

I have been lucky enough to be able to team up with IKEA for this post and share with you a powerful way that they are helping children around the world to escape poverty by bettering their lives through education. The IKEA Foundation is working directly with UNICEF and Save the Children. For every soft toy and children’s book sold through January 3rd, they will donate $1.00 to children’s education. Last year when they did this same project, they raised more than $13.6 million. Since 2003 when this project began, more than 11 million children have been impacted in 46 different countries. The IKEA Foundation is the largest global corporate donor to Save the Children and UNICEF, funding projects that include helping to improve children’s education.  The donations will help UNICEF and Save the Children train teachers in child-friendly teaching methods, improve child protection systems, supply educational materials in the schools, help rebuild schools, provide better water and toilet facilities, and increase school attendance rates. This is such a wonderful project and one that I am happy to help support. We have always loved IKEA and now I have even more of a reason to love them!

In Ethiopia, the funding from the Soft Toys for Education campaign has helped increase the enrollment rate of children into grade 1 of primary education, which has now reached 92%. The gross enrolment rate for pre-primary schools achieved a significant increase of 15.9 percentage points. Over one year, it went from one in 20 children to one in 5 children getting enrolled in pre-primary school. A very encouraging trend!

In South Africa, with the support from the IKEA Foundation, UNICEF supported the implementation of the Safe and Caring Child-Friendly Schools (SCCFS) program for 198 schools not reached by development programmes outside government. This benefitted 151,000 girls and boys and 3,400 educators. Furthermore, IKEA Foundation’s support has helped over 2,500 schools register a school sports league to facilitate a participatory program for all girls and boys, including children with disabilities.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.