A dairy goat for education

A dairy goat in Heifer’s online gift catalog costs $120 and it is amazing how such a donation can change the life of a little girl destined to become one more illiterate African woman, another of the continent’s squandered human resources.
It is a valuable lesson to understand the importance of education to build a better world. If only an infinitesimal amount spent for the “war on terror” would be diverted to “Education”, many lives will be saved.
Building schools and training people to become good teachers is an unquestionable way to “export” democracy.

OUR NEW LOGO

Thanks to Riccardo D’Alpaos , who has designed and donated our new logo.

Contact us if you are interested in sharing our campaign to promote the importance of education.

Israel to Loosen Limits on Gaza Scholars

This post is to update the previous post, below.

Israel to Loosen Limits on Gaza Scholars, but with some restrictions, unfortunately.

You can the read the full story by clicking on the follow link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/world/middleeast/06fulbright.html

Peace can also be achieved through education, but….

How some shortsighted actions of governments prevent the promotion of peace through education.
These are excerpts of an interesting article written by ETHAN BRONNER and published by the New York Times, online version:
“GAZA — The American State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted them permission to leave…….
“A letter was sent by e-mail to the students on Thursday telling them of the cancellation. Abdulrahman Abdullah, 30, who had been hoping to study for an M.B.A. at one of several American universities on his Fulbright, was in shock when he read it. ……..”
“If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society,” he said. “I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?”…
You can read the entire article by clicking on the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/world/middleeast/30gaza.html?th&emc=th
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The social importance of education

We should all start raising awareness on an important social issue such as education, which will make some real impact on people.
Schools should be mission-driven institutions and not sheer employers.
Any nation with a low literacy rate and a public school system near collapse, is particularly vulnerable.
Capital markets have the power to transform the society we live in through responsible investing as a form of activism.
If only a small percentage of the funds allocated for the “war on terror” would be invested in education, the whole world will be better and safer.
It is not an idealistic approach, it can be achieved if we all “march with the mouse” by promoting the importance of education.
To better illustrate our point we refer to the following event:
Teachers is France have been striking against the French government’s plan to reduce the number of teachers in the upcoming years.
If the plan happens as expected the quality of education will deteriorate because in each classroom the number of students will increase. Therefore each teacher has less time to devote to every student.
On the other hand of the political spectrum the same government is planning to send additional troops to Afghanistan.

The importance of education and the risk of lack of it

Every nation’s future is strictly associated to how well it educates the current and upcoming generations.
It is disheartening to notice that “education” seems to be a nonexistent issue in any political campaign, especially in the present U.S. presidential campaign.
More than a million American kids drop out of high school every year, according to official statistics, in a world that is becoming more and more competitive every day.
“We have one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world,” said Allan Golston, the president of U.S. programs for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Education lifts families out of poverty and expands its horizons.
Illiteracy is one of the roots of problems dogging the world today.
Education should aim to promote interfaith understanding and stress multiculturalism and universal values.
Some teachers instead don’t have knowledge, but they are influential, because they use the schools to advance their own political agenda.
Real life is more complicated than black-and-white ideology.

Strike over teachers' pay closes thousands of schools in U.K.

More than a million children are affected by the strike over teachers' pay.
This is what happens when governments’ priorities are mixed up.
Governments find the necessary funds to send troops in foreign Countries to wage wars based on false information, but they come across many difficulties in taking care of the very basic needs on the nation: EDUCATION.
Any investment in Education has a long and beneficial effect on the future of the Nation.