NEW
YORK, Oct. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today with
broken hearts, we mark the one-year anniversary since the implosion
of Gaza on 7 October 2023. Today we honor the hostages, the
arbitrarily detained and the more than 40,000 innocent civilians
who have reportedly been killed in this brutal carnage, and the
countless others that have been disabled and all who have been
traumatized for life.
We join the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in
calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon
and beyond. The Middle East has
become a battlefield where thousands of years of culture have been
destroyed and millions of lives killed. May there be peace and
justice, human security and national security for all the peoples
of the Middle East.
Today, with resolve and determination we call on world leaders
to join us in providing access to life-saving quality education for
the innocent girls and boys impacted by the carnage ripping the
region apart. Education is our single best investment in opening
the hearts and minds to prevent further destruction and foster
peacebuilding and respect for international law.
According to UNICEF, the Gaza
Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child
today, where thousands of innocent children have been killed,
thousands more horrifically injured, and an untold number buried
beneath rubble. This attack on children is unconscionable.
The conflict continues to take a dramatic toll on Gaza's students, teachers, schools and
communities. As the school year begins, at least 45,000 children
who would have entered the first grade in Gaza are again being denied their education.
They join the 625,000 school-aged children in Gaza who have already been denied an entire
school year.
In both the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank, including East Jerusalem, attacks hitting schools have
increased in recent weeks. In the Gaza
Strip, according to UNRWA, the "education system has been
decimated." The escalation into Lebanon has put countless more students and
teachers at risk.
The relentless crisis in Gaza
has set children's education "back by up to five years and risks
creating a lost generation of permanently traumatized Palestinian
youth," according to a new study by the University of Cambridge, the Centre for Lebanese
Studies and UNRWA.
There must be an immediate ceasefire. There must be a respect
for international humanitarian and human rights law. We must find a
solution to return all hostages, stop bombing civilian targets and
reach a peaceful and fair political solution. Only then can we
ensure safety, protection and hope in the classroom, and a revival
of a region with a long history of education and learning. Because
it was here that much of our science, arts and discoveries were
once made to serve all of us.
In the State of Palestine, ECW and our strategic partners have
provided over US$36 million in
funding to improve learning conditions, support mental health and
well-being for children and teachers, strengthen school
infrastructure, provide vocational training, recruit and train
teachers and counsellors, and build the systems and supports needed
to return the girls and boys of Palestine to learning. In all,
these supports have reached nearly 1 million girls and
boys.
According to OCHA's Flash Appeal Financial Tracking, only 49% of
the US$3.4 billion humanitarian
appeal has been funded to date. Of this, only US$55 million of the US$175 million appeal for education has been met.
Together with UN partners, civil society and communities on the
ground, ECW and its strategic partners are working tirelessly to
catalyze new and additional funding for girls and boys impacted by
this brutal conflict.
Our investment in their education is our investment in a better
tomorrow for all of humanity – with no discrimination as to race,
ethnicity, religion or other distinction. We are all one human
family and the only race we need to win is not that of arms or
power. A profoundly good quality education inspires and empowers us
to win the human race.
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