Education is generally considered the most important aspect of a young child's life and has the greatest impact on their future potential. More importantly, an illiterate society is a society ripe for predation and manipulation.
Today around the world some 70 million children do not or cannot go to school and that is why World of Children Award is taking up the cause in 2015 by creating our new Education Award that will recognize those making contributions to childhood education.
In many societies and cultures, education is not even available to girls whereas boys may get some rudimentary form of education. According to www.dosomething.org "53 percent of the world's out-of-school children are girls and 2/3 of the illiterate people in the world are women. While boys are more likely to go to school than girls for many social and religious reasons, boys more frequently drop out of school before completing their primary education. The net result is an estimate by 2001 World of Children Honoree SOS Children's Villages that some 770 million people world-wide are illiterate. (http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/news/international-literacy-day/why-are-two-out-of-three-illiterate-people-female)
In the USA, where education is mandatory, we have many glaring problems with the system. Education is uneven among races and classes of people and our total system has devolved to #17 in the world behind such nations as Korea and Finland (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/american-schools-vs-the-world-expensive-unequal-bad-at-math/281983/).
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, "The percentage of high school dropouts among 16- through 24-year-olds declined from 10.9 percent in 2000 to 6.6 percent in 2012 (source). Reflecting the overall decline in the dropout rate between 2000 and 2012, the rates also declined for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics" http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_219.70.asp.
For the last 18 years, World of Children Award has identified changemakers who have created proven sustainable programs for children - granting millions of dollars in cash grants and program support to over 100 Honorees who are the driving force behind programs serving children in more than 140 countries.
This week, we are proud to invite deserving and qualified organizations that are doing tremendous work in the fields of social services, humanitarian services, the fields of health and medicine - and now in this vital area of education - to send in their nomination materials and join us.
Nominations for the 2015 Awards must be submitted online at www.worldofchildren.org/nominate by 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on Tuesday, April 1, 2015. Nominations for Awards are being accepted in the following categories:
2015 World of Children Education Award - minimum grant of $50,000
Recognizes individuals making substantial contributions to children in the educational arena. This includes individuals who have made and are making education available to severely underserved populations, or those who innovate new and effective methods of learning and teaching, and those whose work creates educational opportunity for children who are challenged or disenfranchised.
2014 World of Children Youth Award - minimum grant of $25,000
Recognizes a young person under the age of 21 making extraordinary contributions to the lives of other children. They must have been doing this work for at least three years, and have created a sustainable program that they plan to continue to lead.
2014 World of Children Health Award - minimum grant of $50,000
Recognizes an individual making a significant contribution to children in the fields of health, medicine or the sciences. This person must have created or managed a sustainable program that has significantly contributed to the health and well-being of children.
2014 World of Children Humanitarian Award - minimum grant of $50,000
Recognizes an individual making a significant contribution to children in social services or humanitarian services. This person must have created or managed a sustainable program which has significantly contributed to children's opportunities to be safe, to learn and to grow.
If we want our nation and our world society to move forward we must reestablish education as the priority for children. Who is with us?