Advocacy Day Issues

Education for All
Download the fact sheet (PDF)

Despite dramatic progress – due in part to increased education aid – today approximately 77 million children are not in school.  More than half of the children out of school – 39 million – live in conflict affected countries. However, donors give the least education assistance to these countries that need it the most. The children in these countries receive only 18 percent of all international assistance for education.

Conflict can have a devastating impact on children and their education. Schools close. Teachers flee. And, school systems lose funding. Yet one of the best ways to protect children in conflict situations and give them hope for the future is to provide them with a good education.

To ensure that the U.S. strengthens its efforts to increase access to quality education for children worldwide, Congress should pass the Education for All Act of 2007.  This legislation recognizes our common responsibility to ensure that all children have access to quality education by increasing funding to help developing countries meet the goal of universal basic education by 2015.

Supporting Children in U.S. Disasters
Download the fact sheet (PDF)

Children and youth have unique needs which should be given special consideration in planning for, responding to, and recovering from emergencies and disasters. The existing system of disaster management in the U.S. is the purview of local, state, and federal government emergency management organizations. The disaster management programs and activities of these organizations are not mandated or fully able respond to the unique needs of children.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita exposed gaps in disaster management that adversely affect children.  The number of licensed child care facilities in affected areas declined by 54 (4 percent) in Mississippi and 356 (25 percent) in Louisiana after the storms.  Some 1,100 schools were closed immediately following Hurricane Katrina and 372,000 schoolchildren were initially unable to attend school in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

A Commission on Children and Disasters should make recommendations to improve how the needs of children are met in the event of a major disaster or emergency.  Save the Children urges Congress to pass a bill to create a Commission on Children and Disasters to assess the needs of children during and after emergencies or disasters, identify gaps and make recommendations to Congress and the President.