Education

School children in Madagascar. © Kropke

Everyone agrees that education is the key to reducing poverty and preventing hunger. Education, especially for girls and women, is the prerequisite for better health, for an increase in production, for a more just distribution of wealth and resources, for participation in societal processes, for democratisation and innovation.

"I have seen schoolchildren whom I am so jealous of. If I cannot read and write, I have no future" commented Lakshmi, a 10-year-old schoolgirl, who can go to school thanks to the Indian Organisation M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) in Pradesh, Southern India. At the age of six Lakshmi often already worked for up to 12 hours daily in the field. Now she is the first person in her family who is learning to read and write. 

Education – Investment in the Future

Throughout the world 963 million people are currently suffering from hunger and there are around 780 million illiterate people. Educational poverty and a related frequency of hunger are particularly concentrated in the rural regions of developing countries. Most of the children who do not go to school also live here. That is particularly dramatic, since in these developing countries 50 to 70 percent of the total population is often under 25 years old. It will depend on this group of society whether the urgently needed social and political change occurs in their society.

Schreibunterricht in einer
Schule in Tadschikistan.
© Irrgang

A Better Life with Education

In most developing countries the available educational opportunities are inadequate for enabling poor people to secure their existence. But poor households and communities threatened by hunger in rural regions benefit significantly from investments in education. Here are a few facts regarding this:

• The extent of malnutrition decreases proportionately with the ability to read and write.
• The average income of young women in poor countries increases by ten to 20 percent with each additional year completed at school.
• Information from Southern Asia and Sub Saharan Africa proves that a completed basic education increases the productivity of small farmers by eight percent. 
• Education is the best social immunisation against HIV/Aids: each year 700,000 new HIV infections could be prevented if all children received basic school education. 
• Children of mothers who can read and write have a 50 percent better chance of becoming more than five years old than children whose mothers are illiterate.

Welthungerhilfe's Children's Programmes

Welthungerhilfe is convinced of the key importance of education for overcoming poverty. Therefore within the framework of its Millennium Initiative it focuses on making a contribution towards the Millennium Development Objective Number Two: "Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling". Because primary education lays the cornerstone for lifelong learning, so that people can lead a long, healthy and creative life. Welthungerhilfe supports Programmes und Projects which successfully integrate poor children into the formal school system, particularly into the primary school. Mobilising local communities for this objective plays a decisive role for the success of this measure.