VOICES RISING
YEAR III - VOL 3. Nº136
April 22, 2005
CONTENT
1.- GCE ACTION WEEK IN
2.- GLOBAL ACTION WEEK - APRIL 24-30, 2005
3.- REGIONAL MEETING FOR THE GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY (GCAP)
4.- EUROPEAN REGIONAL MEETING ON LITERACY HELD 2−5 APRIL 2005 IN LYON
5.- THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED DAYS: THE FUTURE PAPACY, THE FUTURE CHURCH
6.- THE UKs LARGEST FESTIVAL OF ADULT LEARNING IS ON ITS WAY
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
1.- GCE ACTION WEEK IN
Dear IALLA members
I am well hope everybody is well too. We are busy preparing for the GCE Action Week in
We have a number of activities including a round table on the right to adult education with our Minister of Education on the 29 April 2005.
Some of the issues we will look into;
- Young person's leadership school
- Problems of rural poverty and HIV/Aids
- How far on the road to free education?
- "Children speak out"
- Tracking of quality school nutrition programme
- how the right to education has progressed for the Early Childhood Development sector.
Colleagues I will be in
When I come back from
Regards
Archie Mokonane
**********************************************************
2- GLOBAL ACTION WEEK - APRIL 24-30, 2005
MILLIONS OF CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD DEMAND: SEND MY FRIEND TO SCHOOL
Young people and education activists in more than 100 countries will join together this week to protest world leaders failure to meet a major UN target on girls education this year a failure they say will lead to greater poverty and unnecessary child deaths.
Five years ago, governments of the world promised to get equal numbers of girls as boys into school by 2005. The target the first of all the UNs Millennium Development Goals to fall due - will be missed, and experts believe that a second Millennium target for giving every child a quality primary education is also at risk.
As part of the Global Campaign for Educations (GCE) Send my Friend to School campaign from April 24-30, children will be presenting politicians, cabinet ministers and even heads of state with colourful cardboard cut-outs, or friends, each of which represents one of the more than 100 million children out of school. A million cut-out friends, collected from around the world, will be delivered to G8 leaders at the G8 Summit in
Girls education is the key to ending world poverty. 2005 marks the year that world leaders have broken their promise to get equal numbers of girls and boys into school. I support the Global Campaign for Educations call to educate girls to end poverty and call on world leaders to respond to calls from children around the world to 'send my friend to school said Graca Machel, human rights activist and wife of Nelson Mandela, while making her own friend as part of the campaign.
Mr Mandela delivered his own rallying cry to young people around the world when he met children involved in the Send my Friend to School campaign: Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Children from all corners of the world will be rising to the challenge set by Mr Mandela and showing their solidarity with the more than 100 million children around the world and 860 million illiterate adults who have been denied their fundamental right to learning, most of whom are girls and women.
Kailash Satyarthi, GCE chairperson, said: Enabling girls to attend school is literally a matter of life and death. Education, especially for girls and women, is the best way to break the cycle of ill health, hunger and poverty. Without it we cant achieve the Millennium Development Goals. World Bank research shows that this year alone, one million additional children will die unnecessarily, because governments failed to meet the 2005 target for girls education.
Ends- For more information please contact: Jo Walker, Tel +44 1865 313 111, email: actionweek@campaignforeducation.org, or visit www.campaignforeducation.org
GCE
web@campaignforeducation.org
…………………………………………………….
GCE E-News: April 22
Help us to send 1 million 'friends' to the G8.
As the Global Action Week begins to build momentum, the GCE launches today a special Send my Friend to School online action. The GCE will be delivering a million 'friends', collected from around the world to G8 leaders at the G8 Summit in
www.sendmyfriend.info
If you want to send 'friends' made in your country to the G8 please contact: actionweek@campaignforeducation.org
Meanwhile, exciting country plans continue to flood in. Below are just some of the country highlights - more country news will follow over the coming week.
Ghana - the President and Vice President to meet with 'friends'
In Ghana the Action Week will be kick-started with a national launch by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, attended by Ministers and children. The event will take place in a deprived fishing area, where many children are out-of-school, and will be followed by a visit to local schools. The week will culminate on April 29 when a delegation of children and their 'friends' will meet the President - this will be mirrored by regional events with 'friends' being delivered to Regional Ministers.
Ethiopia - Students to march on Parliament with their 'friends'
In Ethiopia a student march is planned where 'friends' will descend on the Parliament Building, a meeting will follow with the President. Simultaneous marches will take place in regional capitals.
Germany - Vice-President meeting with 'friends'
Students will meet with the Vice President of the German national parliament, Dr. Susanne Kastner in front of the parliament building in Berlin. Large life-sized 'friends' are being made to be presented to national and local politicians when they go 'back to school', while smaller 'friends' are being made to be sent to the G8-summit in
Denmark - Development Minister to open exhibition of 'friends'
Nearly 20,000 'friends' have been made in Denmark - they will be displayed alongside a special 'friend' exhibition by the world famous artist, Olafur Eliasson. The exhibition will open at the April 26, by the Danish Minister for Development. Children have also been busy learning about education around the world in schools across the country, an amazing 1 in every 7 Danish pupils have participated. As part of their lessons they were read the 'Reading Rocket', which is collection of short stories, donated by famous Danish writers.
"Friends" will be collected and presented to government and public officials during a breakfast with Members of Parliament of the Canadian Government. Later, one 'friend' from each region will be selected to be sent for the G8 events as the 'virtual' Canadian delegation.
A colourful rally with 'friends' made by Cambodian children, with an estimated 2,000 children will march through the streets.
The Mayor of Montevideo will start the Action Week in
India - Run with 'friends', followed by MPs going 'back to school'
In India the coalition is planning the first ever 'protest marathon' which will kcik-off simultaneously across the country at 11.30am on April 24, 3000 children - both school going and non-school going - will be taking part. Later in the week, on April 27 & 28, MPs will be going 'back to school'.
***************************************************************
3.- REGIONAL MEETING FOR THE GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY (GCAP)
Arab Region
As part of the GCAP international facilitation group, and in the context of the regional meetings, the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) will be organizing the regional GCAP meeting for the Arab countries. The meeting will take place in Cairo,
Two co-facilitators have been agreed with to manage the agenda of the two-day meeting; they are Mr. Izzat Abdel Hadi from the Bisan Center for Research and Development in Palestine and Mr. Alaa Shukrallah from AHED.
The meeting will host around 55 to 60 participants from several Arab countries. They will include two to three organizations from each of Palestine,
The two-day meeting will focus on working group sessions that engage the participants in setting out strategies for enhancing the GCAP in the Arab region. The first day will include introduction of the GCAP, the coalition behind it, and the white band activities. Examples of national activities and coalitions from other regions of the world will be highlighted. Participants are expected to engage in small discussion groups on means of encouraging regional and national mobilization within the GCAP in the Arab Region, and putting out ideas for organizing national events and establishing national coalitions. The second day will concentrate on sharing possible tools and mechanisms for national campaigns and coalitions in the framework of the GCAP in the Arab region. Participants will discuss national specificities in mobilizing civil society organizations and citizens in the Arab countries within GCAP. Participants will engage as well in discussions on possible challenges and barriers that could face GCAP in the Arab region and possible response strategies in this regards.
We hope this meeting is of interest to you and we invite you to join us in Cairo.
The Arab NGO Network for Development
Androulla Kyrillou
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 313208
*************************************************************************
4.- EUROPEAN REGIONAL MEETING ON LITERACY HELD 2−5 APRIL 2005 IN LYON
Institute for Education
European Regional Meeting on Literacy held 2−5 April 2005 in Lyon
Literacy is a concern not only of developing countries. Also in Europe millions of people do not have the basic competencies to tackle the demands of everyday life. These European citizens are left at the margins of the knowledge society that the European Union aims to become, as expressed in the Lisbon Agenda. The UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012) is an excellent opportunity to review the policies and practices in the European region and to share these with other parts of the world.
About 150 participants from 38 countries attended the European Regional Meeting on Literacy held 2-5 April 2005 in Lyon,
For the preparation of the conference, the participating institutions were asked to fill in an extensive questionnaire on literacy in their countries. The 30 questionnaires received from 23 countries revealed a high variety of literacy definitions and policy frameworks (either having an economic, social or cultural focus). Also the role of the government varies: in many countries the responsibility for literacy lies in the Education Ministry, in others in the local governments and authorities. Literacy programmes mostly aim at facilitating access to the labour market and at improving socio-cultural integration. New developments in the delivery of literacy programmes include the wide range of NGOs and private initiatives involved, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (e.g. e-learning literacy courses) and the professionalization of literacy teachers.
The workshops dealt with “spaces”, “excluded groups” and “quality of literacy”. The workshops on the spaces in which literacy takes place looked at families, workplace, the community and public spaces as well as virtual spaces (distance education and ICTs). The workshops on excluded groups included migrant literacy, literacy in prisons, literacy among the Romas (representing the biggest European minority group), and literacy among young adults and adults, with a focus on gender perspectives. The workshops on quality covered the issue of learners’ participation, literacy for active citizenship and measurement, assessment and evaluation. The latter was also the topic of one of the plenary speaches when Andreas Schleicher from the OECD presented some reflections on the challenges of literacy surveys of which the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the PISA studies are the most prominent examples. The OECD is currently preparing the “Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies” (PIAAC), a kind of “PISA” survey for adults. It was stated by many conference participants that the collection of data through the international surveys has brought the dimensions of functional illiteracy in Europe to the attention of governments and public, but much remains to be done when it comes to policies and practice to improve adult literacy in Europe. Teacher training was identified as crucial for the improvement of the quality of literacy provisions in Europe.
There will be no achievement of the Lisbon agenda without adult literacy. This was one of the statements expressed in the concluding plenary session, in which a number of challenges were raised. The broad and multiple definitions of literacy were questioned in several discussions. The need of building networks and sharing knowledge and experiences among each other, but also with other regions of the world, was one of the main issues addressed. Participants clearly recommended that UIE should coordinate the UN Literacy Decade in Europe and be a clearing house for best practices in the European region.
On the last day, the European meeting joined a national French colloquium of literacy practitioners. This was a symbolic way of demonstrating another issue raised at the conference: effective research and theoretical analysis need to be linked to the work in the practice. Suzy Halimi, Chairperson of the Education Commission of the French National Commission and member of the UIE Governing Board, presented a synthesis of the deliberations of the European meeting to the forum of practitioners highlighting the major trend issues and prospects.
A Final Report summarizing the main contributions and results of the meeting will be available in June.
Contact: Carol Medel-Añonuevo
(c.medel-anonuevo@unesco.org)
UNESCO Institute for Education
Maren Elfert, Public Relations
Feldbrunnenstr. 58, D-20148 Hamburg, Tel.: +49-40-448041-40, Fax: +49-40-4107723, E-mail: m.elfert@unesco.org
www.unesco.org/education/uie
***********************************************************************
5.- THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED DAYS: THE FUTURE PAPACY, THE FUTURE CHURCH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 April 2005
MEDIA CONTACT
Michelle Ringuette
+1 202 986 6093; +1 202 550 1321 mobile
<mailto:mringuette@catholicsforchoice.org> mringuette@catholicsforchoice.org
The First One Hundred Days: The Future Papacy, The Future Church
Catholics for a Free Choice Lays out a Schedule for the New Pope.
WASHINGTON, DC-Catholics for a Free Choice is deeply concerned that the election of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger as pope is a strong indication of continued dissension within the church. The cardinal's historic role as a disciplinarian means the tradition of the punitive father is maintained within the Roman Catholic church.
As we move into a new era for the church, we look to the election of a new pope as a starting point for the critical work that must be done to make this church a home for all Catholics, particularly those divided from the church during the last quarter century.
Today, Pope Benedict XVI has both an opportunity and a mandate to set a tone for the future of his papacy and to redress wrongs done in the name of the
To this end, Catholics for a Free Choice has laid out a schedule for the next one hundred days. We offer these recommendations and requests in the spirit of moving toward a true engagement with the realities and suffering of our times and mindful of the challenges that lay before us as we seek to heal the fractures within our church.
The two most important issues the new pontiff must address are the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the most painful error of the 20th century within the church, and the church's need to work with civil society to stem the tide of unnecessary deaths from HIV/AIDS.
During the first one hundred days, the new pontiff should immediately meet with survivors of sexual abuse by the clergy. No child, no adult survivor and no nun who faced this most profound betrayal of faith were ever able to secure a meeting with the late pontiff. Now the Vatican should redress that wrong and sit down in a private meeting to hear the grief, the pain and the anger of those the church has most let down, including members of SNAP, nuns, young people and adult survivors who have all been abused by Catholic clergy. If the church ever needed a truth and reconciliation process, it is over the scandal of sexual abuse. The Vatican telecommunications office, with the full cooperation of the Vatican Congregation of Bishops, should schedule a televised series of encounters between bishops and victims in which the bishops will have the opportunity to tell the truth about their complicity in this scandal and apologize to the victims. The victims would have the opportunity to forgive these men and move on.
During the first one hundred days, the new pope should form a commission to study the current church policy on condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS. Under the watch of Pope John Paul II, Vatican officials and bishops spread misinformation and even staged condom burnings in AIDS-ravaged Africa. The new pope should immediately initiate an inquiry into the theological basis for permitting the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, including visits to regions particularly hard hit by the pandemic. However, people with and at risk of HIV/AIDS should not need to wait for the results of the commission to be able to protect themselves. The pope should lift the ban on condoms immediately in order to err on the side of life.
During the first one hundred days, the pope should establish the Pontifical Academy on Women's Rights in the Church. As a first step, the Academy would serve as a registry for qualified women candidates for positions that are already open to women. All Vatican officials and ambassadors will submit their resignation from office to the new pope. At least 50 percent of those resignations should be accepted and the posts filled with qualified women.
During the first one hundred days, the
These acts of justice within the church should be matched by an expansion of Pope John Paul II's commitment to peace and his clarion call for debt forgiveness. It is time for a complete renunciation of capital punishment and a clear and binding opposition to the war in
None of these steps would change church teaching; all of them are consistent with current theological and disciplinary norms. None is radical.
The first one hundred days should culminate with a reconciliation mass in St. Peter's Square. After undertaking the above activities and others, the new pope should warmly welcome back Catholics to the church, with special recognition of and an specific invitation to the women, the gays and lesbians, the theologians and bishops punished and marginalized, the sexually abused and others who have felt excluded.
At the end of the first one hundred days, this pope should articulate a vision for the 21st century church that is inclusive, understanding, compassionate and just.
-end-
Also available at http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/lowbandwidth/whatsnew.htm.
Catholics for Free Choice (CFFC) shapes and advances sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women's well being, and respect and affirm the moral capacity of women and men to make sound decisions about their lives. Through discourse, education, and advocacy, CFFC works in the
18th April 2005
The countdown has begun to the start of the largest festival of adult learning in the
During Adult Learners Week, there will be thousands of events across the country, with people learning in colleges, local shops and supermarkets, factories and businesses, libraries and museums, community centres and adult education colleges.
The Week is also the time to celebrate the achievements of adult learners young and old and in all their diversity through the Adult Learners Week Awards. The adults NIACE celebrate are fascinating and inspirational examples of how learning really can transform your life and the lives of others around you.
Rachel Thomson, Senior Campaigns Officer at NIACE, said, Each Adult Learners Week proves - through hearing the stories of the outstanding learners we celebrate through our awards - that learning is good for you health, your self-esteem and your career. And these stories really do inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
She continued, Whatever you want to achieve in life, learning can steer you in the direction you want to go in. With thousands of events taking place across the country, this is the perfect time to find out how learning could unlock the door to your future. To find out more about whats on offer where you are during this years Adult Learners Week, visit our website www.alw.org.uk or call learndirect free on 0800 100 900.
ends-
Media Contacts
Ed Melia, NIACE Press Officer on 0116 204 4248 or 07795 358 870.
Sian Pollock, NIACE Assistant Publicity Co-Ordinator, on 0116 204 2858.
Notes to Editors
1. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is the leading non-government organisation for lifelong learning and exists to encourage more and different adults to engage in learning of all kinds and campaigns for, and celebrates the achievements of, all adult learners.
2. Adult Learners Week, 21st27th May 2005, is the largest annual celebration of adult learning in the
3. Adult Learners Week 2005 will include the following national events:
Saturday 21 May: Cultural Diversity Day
Monday 23 May: Adult Learners Week Launch - QEII Conference Centre
Wednesday 25 May: Parliamentary Reception at the House of Commons
Thursday 26 May: Learning at Work Day
Friday 27 May: Silver Surfers Day
4. Adult Learners Week in
………………………………………
The International Gender and Education Office (GEO) of ICAE creates
VOICES RISING
Email: voicesrising@icae.org.uy
Web: www.icae.org.uy
Tel/fax: 00 5982 401 00 06
Address: Acevedo Diaz 1600 / 1002.
11200 Montevideo,