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Young people speak out for children missing out on school

Matthew and Jessica from Year 10 recently joined young activists from across the UK, Mali, Nigeria and Bangladesh in Westminster.

 

Matthew and Jessica from Year 10 recently joined young activists from across the UK, Mali, Nigeria and Bangladesh in  Westminster. They gathered to share what they had already prepared for the ‘Send My Friend to School’ campaign and discuss the challenges of getting a quality education for the 37 million children missing out on school.

Currently an additional £3 billion a year is urgently needed to support children in crisis situations so the young people wanted to know what the UK government could do to help. They devised questions to put to MPs and Nick Hurd, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development.

 The young campaigners’ questions ranged from asking what the UK government is doing to promote lifelong learning for the Syrian children who have already missed out on years of schooling, to how they will influence other countries to contribute to the important new 'Education Cannot Wait' fund for education.

They also met MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education to hear more about this work. Local Chester MP Chris Matheson came along to hear from Jess & Matthew about the issue and answer their questions personally. The group then delivered hundreds of paper rucksacks made by pupils in their schools to Number 10 Downing Street.

Jessica said: “I feel proud of the campaign and the awareness it has raised across our schools and communities.” Matthew added: “We met MPs in a talk about Global Education for an All-Party Parliamentary Group and it was great to see MPs across the political spectrum working together for the benefit of children who would otherwise be deprived of their education. I enjoyed meeting all of the other young campaigners and meeting young activists from overseas was inspiring. I'm really proud to be a part of the ‘Send My Friend campaign’.”