02 Mar Aid donors get an F for education
PovertyMatters Blog, Guardian.co.uk
If you want to see iron resolve in action, take a trip to the Kachange camp for displaced people in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This is a war zone. Families in the sprawling camp have lost everything – everything that is except a drive to get their kids an education. In the midst of the most abject poverty, parents have come together to build makeshift classrooms, hire a teacher, and buy a blackboard. Many of the kids work in the afternoon, selling charcoal to pay the $1 fee charged every term.
“Being in school is fun – and people with an education can have a better life. I’ll be a doctor,” says David Ichange, aged 12.
Kachange camp is a microcosm of villages and slums across the world’s poorest countries. Poor people understand the power of education to transform lives. They know that a decent education offers their children an escape route from poverty through increased productivity, better prospects of employment and more choice.