A walk for education

Dubai: Young people constitute one of the largest segments of civil society and their future well-being is dependant on the education they receive or on the lack of it. The population of youth in developing nations now constitute a major share and it is imperative that all policy makers, stakeholders and civil society shapers implement in letter and spirit the mandate of the right to education for every child.

It is an accepted fact that education is the key to sustainable development. It also leads to empowerment, self-sufficiency and is the pathway that leads from darkness to light. Despite this, millions of young boys and girls are victims of bondage and slavery, suffering under inhuman conditions, as they try to eke out a living in sweat shops that feed the economies of the global north.

We, Green Hope UAE, raised our voices against this inequality by joining the “Walk for Education” orgainsed by Dubai Cares. Scores of our members, some as young as eight years, walked to demand the right to education for every young person, irrespective of race, creed, ethnicity or colour.

We walked shoulder to shoulder with the thousands of other marchers who were all unified in this cause of providing education to the future generations of this planet.

— The reader is a founder of Green Hope UAE.

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FACTS:

Thousands of schoolchildren in developing countries walk anywhere between 3km to 6km just to get to school everyday. The symbolic walk was a way of filling the shoes of underprivileged students around the world who need to walk every day to and from school. Participating in the walk gives residents a chance to contribute in giving these children better access to education. Every participant, except children aged five and below, paid a registration fee of Dh30, which will go to Dubai Cares’ pool of money that will be used for education projects. These projects are currently helping 10 million school-aged children in 35 developing countries.