Voices from CGI: Gabrielle Apollon

EPCC Staff Writer Gabrielle Apollon was in the thick of things at the CGI Annual Meeting and provides her first-hand highlights of the conversations and commitments during the Education Working Sessions this year.  WednesdayDay One of CGI 2008: As conversations flourished during the Education Working Group Commitment Lunch video, I had a chance to speak with Vicky Colbert, Executive Director of Escuela Nueva Foundation, one of EPCC's partner organizations, and the winner of last year's Clinton Global Citizen Award. She described CGI as a "catalyst for change, a tremendous facilitator for institutional partnerships." Escuela Nueva's pioneering work in Colombia is a testimony to CGI's positive effect on passionate and generous work; last year, EN partnered with Motorala to develop "cyber schools" in local communities, an innovative alternative to ensure academic learning, which expands their reach to secondary school students. This year, EN is committed to expanding its reach to an additional 8,700 students affected by conflict, with their Learning Circles program pdf. Colbert unequivocally states, "Without education, you can't have sustainable development. It is the key for peace and democracy." Thursday Day Two: I think that the most exciting thing about CGI is the outstanding number of influential people that are mobilized to do their part in improving the world we live in. This morning's plenary session video featured both Senator John McCain live in New York and a live satellite feed of Senator Barack Obama. In his remarks, Senator Obama highlighted the importance of educating the world's children, announcing his commitment to work toward erasing the global primary education gap by 2015; in order to do so, he expressed his desire to create a $2 billion global education fund. Senator Obama also committed to signing the bipartisan Education for All Act of 2007 that was first introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). He asserted, "There is nothing more disappointing than a child denied the hope that comes with going to school, and there is nothing more dangerous than a child who is taught to distrust and then to destroy." We know this is particularly true for children affected by conflict, because they have already been left with the seeds of dispair, which can easily influence them into becoming agents of destruction themselves. However, with an education, these children can become empowered and can choose to multiply the gift of education to other children in similar circumstances. That's exactly what Grace Akallo is doing – one of today's Education Working Group panelists for the discussion, "Providing Real Choices: What works for at-risk adolescent girls and boys?" video A former child soldier in the rebel force, Lord's Resistance Army, in Northern Uganda, she shared her heart-wrenching story of being abducted from her school dormitory at fourteen years old and the traumatic experiences she survived. She escaped seven months later, but she relates, "I felt hopeless when I returned; I had nobody to take me to school, which was my dream...I thought my future was lost." Her life was transformed, however, after a teacher at her former school went to find her and strongly encouraged her to return to school. Grace has no doubt that this individual attention and concern for the education of escaped child soldiers is the necessary link for their transformation. As she says about her generation, "They are not a lost generation; they're only lost if we want them to be. We can save them through education." Toward this end, she has started the "Gift of Grace" Scholarship Fund, which seeks to enable girls to be empowered through education as well.FridayDay Three: This morning's education panel, "Education and the Struggle for Peace and Stability video," was the most challenging and inspiring by far. Christiana Thorpe was only one of two girls in her village that were sent to school and is now the Chief Electoral Commissioner of Sierra Leone; she worked with 6,000 to 8,000 girls who were sexually abused during the civil war, to provide education, and in so doing, restore their dignity. Wyclef Jean, founder of Yéle Haiti and Grammy Award-winning singer, shared anecdotes about children in Haiti who are used by gang leaders as pawns to parade with rival gang leaders' heads on sticks throughout the city. During the height of the 2004 Haitian rebellion, Wyclef's one-on-one talks with the gang members were revealing: one rebel was a former teacher with five kids, no job, and no way to send his own kids to school. He was asking for help. Zainab Salbi, President and CEO of Women for Women International, discussed the reasons behind the staggering recent statistic that 76% of women in Iraq are not sending their daughters to school, primarily due to the lack of security and financial resources and a lack of vision for economic opportunities for educated people in the future. As our government continues to pursue developing democracy in Iraq, one woman's response to Zainab should be remembered: "If we don't have education, how can we have democracy? How can we talk about good democracy if there are no educated people in the country?"