Teachers Without Borders

Children and school buildings are increasingly becoming targets in conflicts across the world, warns Save the Children as one of the key findings of a report published today.

The organisation finds that the risks of violence to schoolchildren in conflict-blighted areas are on the rise as schools are increasingly used as symbolic, easy targets by armed groups. These risks to children will continue to grow unless the international community takes urgent action to protect them from attack.

The report - The Future is Now - points out that civilians now make up more than 90% of casualties in the world's conflicts and about half of those are children. It warns that education is under attack by armed militias, criminal groups and even governments through the bombing of schools and is threatened by military interference in humanitarian work - all of which put children's lives in danger.

Children and education systems are often on the front line of violent conflict. Of the world’s 72 million children who don’t attend school, about one-third live in only 20 conflict-affected countries.

The report will also explore the role of inappropriate education in fostering conflict and explore ways that education can be a force for peace, social cohesion and human dignity.

Save the Children, which in 2006 launched its campaign Rewrite the Future to get children in conflict-affected countries into school, released a report this month called The Future is Now, which points out that “civilians now make up more than 90% of casualties in the world’s conflicts and about half of those are children.”

She  said this at the Award of Millennium Development Ambassador (MDA) organised by Teachers Without Borders (TWB),  an international Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) dedicated to advancing human welfare through teacher professional development and community education hosted in Abuja where she was given an award in recognition of her efforts in the foundation.

She stressed that teachers constitute the cornerstone in building a world without borders and other forms of barriers that retard growth, development interactions and integration of thr world.

She however lamented that the society has a lot to do to place teachers on a better pedestal, particularly in developing countries . Africa Regional Coordinator, Raphael Ogar Oko , said TWB works to support the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) through the Millennium Development Ambassadors (MDA)and Millennium Development Volunteers (MDV) program.