Dubai: Dubai Cares has announced a ‘School Feeding Campaign' as part of its endeavour to help attain the UN Millennium Development Goal 2 of achieving universal primary education by 2015.
The campaign was announced under the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
The campaign, which will coincide with Ramadan and run until the end of November, is aimed at providing schoolchildren in developing countries with the required daily nutrition and adequate food, in order to improve their access to quality primary education.
According to Unesco's 2010 Education for All Report (EFA), the number of children out of school has dropped by 33 million worldwide since 1999, but according to the World Food Programme's (WFP) statistics, there are still approximately 72 million school-age children worldwide who do not attend school.
Another 66 million primary school-aged children in developing countries attend school hungry, with 23 million of them in Africa alone.
Major obstacle
If the trend continues, 56 million children will still be out of school in 2015.
Tarek Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares, said: "Access to nutritious food is a major obstacle in many developing nations and must be incorporated into any comprehensive education development programme.
"Dubai Cares' campaign will provide the UAE community with another chance to help realise Shaikh Mohammad's vision for providing children in developing countries with access to primary education".
Since its launch in 2007, Dubai Cares has been working towards eliminating the main obstacles that prevent children's access to quality primary education.
