UNICEF & Gulf Charity To Educate 1,000,000 Kids

UNICEF partners with Gulf charity to educate one million children

19 February 2008 – The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has partnered with the Gulf charity Dubai Cares to bring education to one million children in need and help contribute to achieving universal primary education by 2015.

Under the new partnership announced today, Dubai Cares – launched last September by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai – will work closely with UNICEF to support education programmes in Africa, Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East.

“Education provides vital opportunities for children and helps communities break the poverty cycle,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman.

“With the assistance of Dubai Cares, UNICEF can expand its support for education programmes that contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals,” she added, referring to the pledges made by world leaders to slash poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy by 2015.

UNICEF estimates that some 93 million children of primary-school age worldwide do not attend school. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa (more than 41 million), South Asia (31.5 million), and the Middle East and North Africa (6.9 million).

As part of the initiative, Dubai Cares will help build and finance a variety of programmes in the field of primary education in developing countries, while UNICEF will support the building of new schools and the rehabilitation of existing ones, improving the quality of education, and achieving gender equality.

Chairman Mohammed Al Gergawi noted that for Dubai Cares, UNICEF is “a natural partner as the UN organization has an incredible track record of more than 60 years in implementing projects to ensure children's rights. It also has effective access to resources and expertise for coordinating large scale initiatives in a number of countries.”

ENDS

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