Our Mission
"Universal education will speed progress towards all development." - United Nations
Developing countries face multiple challenges: difficulty accessing clean water and electricity, transportation needs, governmental and environmental issues, little access to health care, gender inequalities, and lack of education. All of these issues are interconnected, but two of them are especially vital to achieving the others: universal education and the empowerment of women.
From a number of angles, educating children helps reduce poverty. It is education that will provide the next generation with the tools to fight poverty and conquer disease. School also offers children a safe environment, filled with support, supervision and socialization. Here, they learn life skills that can help them prevent diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria. At school they may receive life-saving vaccines, fresh water, and nutrient supplementation.
Educating a girl has shown to dramatically reduce the chance that her own child will die before the age five, and also improves her prospects of being able to support herself and have a voice in society.
Universal education may appear to be a relatively straightforward goal, but it has proved extremely difficult to achieve. Decades after commitments have been made to ensure a quality education for every child, approximately 101 million children are still denied this right.
Their Stories
Meet Thursday
This past January, at four in the morning, Katie awoke to the phone ringing. Her friend John, from Liberia, where she used to live, was calling her. John, whose nickname is Thursday, is 11 years old. He gets his nic-name from the one shirt he keeps ironed and wears everyday - this shirt says 'Thursday' across the chest. Thursday is a well-behaved, somewhat serious, and very honest young boy. His mother worked hard, selling cold water on the street, so she could meet the basic needs of her family. School had been a priority in her family's life, but an unexpected tragedy turned everything around. Thursday told Katie that a few months ago his mom, the family provider, had died in child birth, as many Liberian women do. Now Thursday was forced to sell water on the streets, trying to make enough money to survive.
Katie, holding the phone in disbelief, asked Thursday how he was coping. He replied, "I will overcome this thing, I am coming on strong." When she asked him what she could do to help in this hard time he said that he was struggling to eat. Katie heard no self-pity in his voice-- Thursday is a fighter.
More than Me was able to pay Thursday's school fees, as well as help him with some money for food. Thursday completed school last year with top grades in his 2nd grade class. We are helping Thursday to attend school again this year.
Meet Elizabeth
This is Elizabeth. She is eight years old. Katie met her outside of her home, which is made of old newspaper and tin. Elizabeth's mom, Esther, has a little market in front of their house where she sells candles and coal, used for light and cooking. Elizabeth is full of boundless energy and potential. Like 61% of the children in Liberia, Elizabeth's family could not afford to send her to school. The average income for a family in Liberia is around 180 dollars a year, less than the yearly school fees for one child. The uniform, shoes, and books cost the family money that they just do not have. Elizabeth loves to play house and make-believe, and she is always making new friends. When Katie asked Elizabeth what she would want if she could have anything in the entire world, Elizabeth replied that she wanted to go to school!
Thanks to a More than Me scholarship Elizabeth is now living her dream. She is learning to read and write. Her chances of having children at a young age have dropped, and her risks of being infected with HIV have diminished. Because of the education she is receiving, she is more likely to live a longer, healthier life, and is less susceptible to child labor and abuse.
