Education is the one sure ticket out of poverty for millions of children around the world. Yet while we know that knowledge is power, there are still 72 million children globally who do not have access to quality schooling. However the power behind education is not just found in giving one access to an education, but ensuring that they are given access to an education are still not left behind. For those children with access to school often find themselves in the classrooms concentrating more on their rumbling bellies, than the lesson at hand.
Poverty and Education go hand and hand, and it is for that reason that the Global Campaign for Education and ONE have united in the fight to see that the 72 million children around the globe who are without access to a proper education are granted one. The unification of programs such as this are truly "food for thought'; as hungry children are more likely to be disruptive in class, have lower motivation and concentration, get lower grades, and fall ill more frequently than properly nourished pupils.
The fight against hunger and for education, while simple, is not an easy one. In June this year the World Food Program was forced to suspend its free breakfast program in Cambodia, in response to the souring food prices (AP). However the WFP and other aid agencies are not giving up the fight.
On Monday the WFP called for all citizens of the world to join its online "virtual wall" to fight hunger, an initiative which will provide free meals for some 60 million children across the globe who continue to go to school hungry every day. The "The Wall Against Hunger" and programs such as this is more than just a food program, it is truly an educational and health program combined, for children who go to school hungry.
The educational gap for hungry children is truly a global one, as even in the most developed nations, children continue to go to school hungry. In the United States, attention to the growing problem began to surface after many teachers and school nurses began to notice that many children who were complaining of sickness and, or, disrupting classes, were not sick or had behavioral problems, but were simply hungry. In a response to high levels of hungry children, many US school have since begun free or reduced cost breakfast and lunch programs.
Feeding programs are becoming increasingly innovative, especially in the wake of the food crisis, including that of a rarely known, but highly effective and low cost United Nations grass roots initiative, called Quick Impact Projects (QIPs). QIPs bring are now being effectively put into place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to provide both sustenance and income for mothers with badly nourished children (UN).
Children are the future and in order for one to see prosperity in that future we must make a global investment in their education, including seeing that they are adequately nourished so that they have a chance to fulfill their potential and work to ensure that future generations no longer have to face hunger at home or in the classrooms.
