Dear ADRA Family,
This year, many of us experienced for the first time what it is like to have an out-of-school child. Not home for the summer, or home for the holidays, but home instead of in the classroom.
For 264 million children around the globe, that experience is not a temporary one, but a permanent reality.
Imagine, for a moment, that your child has never been to elementary school. These past few weeks at home are not the exception, but the rule. Your child has never participated in a class discussion, has never raised a hand to answer a math problem, has never had a formal opportunity to learn to read and write.
For 25 million elementary school-aged children, that scenario is reality. Those statistics are even worse if that child is a girl or a refugee or requires special education. According to UNESCO, twice as many girls as boys will never start school. In addition, UNHCR states that refugee children are five times more likely to be out of school than their nonrefugee peers, and UNICEF has found that 90 percent of children with disabilities in the developing world are not in school.
But there is hope. YOU can make a difference for the millions of children who were not in school before this pandemic, and who will likely remain out-of-school after it ends. YOU can join our advocacy campaign that says every child, everywhere, should have a chance to go to school.
Right now, we have nearly 700,000 signatures. That means 700,000 people want children to have a chance to go to school. I hope you are one of them. Please sign today so that we can continue to work with governments and world leaders to see that every child in the world has the chance to go to school.
Education changes lives. Education elevates children out of conflict, disaster, and poverty. Education equips children with what they need to succeed. Education inspires children to dream bigger than their circumstance.
One day this global health crisis will end, and millions of children will go back to school. With your help, we can offer that same hope to every child, everywhere.
Learn more at www.ADRA.org/InSchool
