HONG KONG SAR - Media
OutReach - 23 November 2021 - Aide et Action, the largest international
French-based association for development through education, calls for
ambassadors from corporates, philanthropists and enthusiasts of global
education in Hong Kong to be part of "Education for
Women Now", its
first global philanthropic campaign, with the mission to ensure that an
additional 3 million women and girls in Africa, Asia and Europe can unlock
their potential and have access to quality education by 2025.
The United Nations has made education a priority. In its Agenda 2030,
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 calls for "inclusive and equitable quality
education" and "lifelong learning opportunities" for all and SDG 5 aims to
"achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls". In a
recent report titled Reimagining our
futures together: A new social contract for education released by UNESCO, a
cross-section of stakeholders in education need to work together to reform
education.
Bridging the gender gap
Women and girls are half of the world's population and half of its
potential. UNESCO has warned that most of the world's 773 million illiterate
adults are women and twice as many girls as boys still will never start school.
It's a huge challenge for governments, associations and non-government
organisations (NGOs) to close the gender gap in education and the pandemic
makes the situation worse. According to UNESCO, more than 11 million girls may
never come back to school and might be forced to join the ranks of 130 million
girls who were already out of school before COVID-19.
Women and girls are one of the most vulnerable groups during the
pandemic. Aide et Action has transformed the lives of the most vulnerable and
marginalized groups in need for the past four decades. With support of more
than 51,000 sponsors and donors, the association has footprints in 19 countries
including some from Southeast Asia such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao People's
Democratic Republic. In 2020, Aide et Action supported nearly 3 million people
worldwide.
Tackling inequality head-on
In Lao People's Democratic Republic, before the pandemic, 9% of
females were married by the age of 15, while 35.4% were married by 18,
according to global partnership Girls Not Brides. This is significantly higher
than the global average of 20% and may increase as the COVID-19 crisis
continues. These gender dynamics are reflected in the education system where
females are more than twice as likely to be unschooled than males, with 21% of
adult females reported in the government's census to have no educational
attainment compared with 10% of adult males.
In view of such imbalanced gender dynamics, Aide et Action piloted a
project - with the support of the British Embassy - on women empowerment
through entrepreneurship training. The project started from 22 participants in
two villages in Vientiane province home to primarily Hmong and Khmu ethnicities
which demonstrate strong traditional gender role divisions and educational
disadvantages.
Scaling up and scaling out
Now, with the support of the L'Oréal Fund for Women, Aide et Action is
taking the lessons learnt from its pilot and building on its success, scaling
up to reach 860 participants over the next four years. From training on how to
apply for a job to how to build a start-up, its goal is to improve the social,
behavioural, and entrepreneurship skills of ethnic minority women in Odomxay
Province.
What started as a small pilot project in two villages has now grown to
represent something much larger for some of the communities' key figures – the
realisation that more options can be created for young women other than child
marriage, agriculture and unpaid domestic labour, and that such options may
stand to benefit whole communities.
Calling for international support
Early this year, Aide et Action has announced the launch of "Education
for Women Now", its first global philanthropic campaign with the mission to
ensure that an additional 3 million women and girls in Africa, Asia and Europe
can unlock their potential and have access to quality education by 2025.
Co-chaired by Aïcha Bah Diallo, International President of Aide et
Action, also the former Guinea Minister of Education and the former UNESCO
senior education leader and, later, special advisor to the Director General,
and Denise Epoté, a leading figure of French and African television, now head
of Africa department at TV5 Monde (a renowned French television network) the
campaign committee is looking for ambassadors from corporates,
philanthropists and enthusiasts of global education to be part of this
movement.
"Nelson Mandela referred to Education as the most powerful weapon to
change the world. Education is a weapon of mass construction. Let's hand it to
girls and women, because they are the ones who will change the world," says
Denise Epoté, Campaign Committee Chair, Director of TV5World, Africa.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.