Video: The Power of Education

In Year 8 this year at St Vincent’s, I have had to create many videos for my assessment tasks, even Maths. This video is for geography and it was made on Premier Pro and PowToons.

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach the man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

That is the power of education.

In the western world we know how important education is. Unfortunately many areas of the world are still trying to solve this problem, especially Africa. Did you know that educated women are less vulnerable to HIV infection, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation? Children born to educated mothers are less likely to be stunted or malnourished. In developing countries, every additional year of education can increase a person’s future income by an average of 10%.

UNICEF recognise this education problem and according to their January 2012 report, all children must have access to primary education that is free, compulsory and of good quality. So why is it, in most developing countries, like Chad, public schools are not free. Costs of books, uniforms, and teachers’ salaries are paid by families that can not afford it. According to UNICEF, 67 million primary-school-age children are denied the right to education.

Despite this focus on education, why does the African continent still have areas with less than 50% literacy among children under 18? In comparison, the youth literacy rates in Western countries like Australia the US have 100% and South American and European countries are 90-100%?

In many countries in Africa drinking water is scarily scare. Floods are common. Disease like diarrhoea and STDs spread like wild fire. In some areas such as Pende, in Chad, most children can not afford to eat, let alone be educated.

You can become a global citizen. You can become a global parent. Help equal the scales of inequality in education. All you have to do is Google… Sponsor a child world vision.

Through World Vision and many other charities you and your family can select the child that you want to help. Support them financially through their tough time. Sign up to send a small monthly gift. You can give a child basic needs, but most importantly, education. Let us all help, and teach that man to fish.

Hope you enjoyed my video.

– Eve