Education is a Human Right

Actress Angelina Jolie addresses correspondents at a UN Headquarters press conference. Image: Evan Schneider/UN Photo

Actress Angelina Jolie is only one of the voices among many calling now for a rise in funding for education worldwide. Recently during an interview with NBC television network Jolie spoke to the issue of girls as she talked about her own Ethiopian adopted daughter Zahara. “It’s not just my voice it’s everyone’s voice. Education is a human right and a foundation for a better life,” said Jolie.

Thanks to the Girl Child Education Fund, a new initiative of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), and its sister organization, The Florence Nightingale International Foundation (FNIF), forty orphaned girls in Africa are attending school this year. The girls are from Kenya, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia.

Approximately 115 million children are out of school around the globe today. According to an April 2006 report by UNESCO at least half of those children live in countries affected by conflict, while many more are excluded from the basic right to an education because of natural disasters and other crises.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm1k-UYhIa4&rel=0]
The Orphans of War.

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-Lys Anzia, of Women News Network, is currently writing news articles through affiliations with WUNRN – Women’s UN Report Network. As an American historical playwright, Lys is currently finishing a true to life stagescript based on the secret flying lesson Amelia Earhart gave to Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933. Lys is also assistant book reviews editor for the UNESCO award winning online women’s journal, Moondance Magazine, and freelance radio broadcast journalist for WINGS radio syndicate. -Bulgarian photographer, Svetlana Bahchevanova, has exhibited her work in Europe and the United States in galleries and museums and has been published by numerous major newspapers, agencies and magazines such a International Herald Tribune, l’Humanitie, Soar, Pravda, Biography, Reuters and Associated Press.

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-Sources for this article include the NBC Television Network, UNICEF, UNESCO, International Council of Nurses, The Florence Nightingale International Foundation, and MSN Encarta.

©WNN – Women News Network 2007

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