Qatar’s development institutions work to build a global movement that contributes to the human, social and economic development through the provision of quality education, employment, support for small and micro projects, and welfare programs, especially in the most needy societies and areas of conflict and disasters. These institutions are also keen on meeting the needs of children and women, helping them to be active members in their communities, and providing them with the tools necessary to support the sustainable development and create an environment of peace, security, justice and prosperity.
In the blessed month of Ramadan, Qatar’s development institutions, particularly the Education Above All Foundation and Silatech, mount their activities given the religious specificity of Ramadan, and their belief that change can only happen through cooperation and working together.
Since its inception in 2021, the Education Above All Foundation has worked through its programs – Educate A Child, Al Fakhoora, Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC), and Reach Out to Asia – to provide primary education for nearly 59 million out-of-school children, and to promote the education policy of curricula that reduce conflict and build stability and peace in conflict-affected areas.
The total commitments of the Education Above All Foundation amount to more than $2.6 billion, with the support of strategic partner Qatar Fund for Development, development banks, the United Nations organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. More than 14.5 million people benefit from the Foundation’s activities in 60 countries, of which approximately $1.5 billion support the least developed countries.
In Africa, the Education Above All Foundation has been operating since 2012 in 32 countries, implementing 50 joint projects to ensure access to quality education for nearly 7.5 million out-of-school youth and children, at a total budget of about $1.2 billion. The Foundation also operates in 20 Asian countries providing 44 projects supporting over 7 million out-of-school children and over 5,000 children at high risk of dropping out of school across Asia at a budget of nearly $10 million.
In exclusive statements to Qatar News Agency , Director of External Relations at Education Above All Foundation Lina Al Derham explained that the Foundation launched during Ramadan this year a campaign to support its projects in a number of countries most in need, calling on philanthropists, private companies and businessmen to contribute to it this campaign to achieve its global goals and provide quality education to the largest possible number of out-of-school children.
Palestine, the Foundation launched a three-year program to enhance the capacities of 30,000 young men and women in Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The program aims to promote the capacities of the youth to prepare for, confront and recover from humanitarian crises; improve their positive participation to global citizenship, peace and security; and exchange experiences with young people in the MENA region to discover new paths of support, joint initiatives, and volunteer work opportunities, Lina Al Derham said.
The Foundation also launched a program to rebuild education in Gaza by obtaining postgraduate scholarships through strategic partnerships with other leading institutions and universities to provide an additional 4,000 comprehensive scholarships to support academic achievement and skills development, with the aim of empowering young people to make a real difference for themselves, their peers, and their communities, she added.
In Sudan, Lina Al Derham said that the Education Above All launched a joint project with UNICEF to reach out to 50,000 children deprived of schools, aged between 6 and 13, in 11 Sudanese states with aim of providing a high-quality primary education for children in rural areas, nomadic communities, the displaced internally, and other children affected by disasters.
She added that the Foundation implements the project “Enrol OOSC Project: Break The Cycle Of Poverty” in seven countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, and Senegal), which are among the lowest 10 countries in terms of the lowest average years of schooling. The six-year joint project between the Educate A Child program and the Build On organization aims to promote comprehensive, high-quality and equitable education and provide lifelong learning opportunities for 160 thousand children deprived of schools of primary school age across the project countries, build 1873 primary schools in rural areas, educate and build capacity of community members, leaders, teachers, government officials and students, and create income-generating initiatives through group products and small individual loans.
In Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, the Director of External Relations at the Education Above All Foundation pointed out that they are implementing, in cooperation with the United World Schools (UWS), a project to increase retention rates for children at high risk and those most at risk of dropping out primary education in these three countries.
She noted that the Foundation provides quality education in Zanzibar to 36,000 children as part of a project to educate all children deprived of schools, with the aim of promoting fair and equitable access to high-quality primary education by increasing community participation and community support in identifying, registering and retaining children deprived of schools, improving school infrastructure and safe learning environments, raising the efficiency and motivation of teachers, as well as providing psychological and social support and supporting life skills of children.
Meanwhile, Silatech believes that economic empowerment and youth employment is an effective way to restore hope to young people. Therefore, it always affirms its commitment to addressing the unemployment crisis around the world by empowering more than 5 million young men and women.
In order to achieve this strategic goal, Silatech signed a number of new agreements aimed at reaching a larger number of young people, on top of which is the renewal and expansion of its cooperation agreement with the European Union to implement the second phase of the “Support to Youth Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion” project which aims to empower youth by providing financial grants to finance income-generating projects of young entrepreneurs, and to build their capabilities to create a source of income for them and at the same time employ other young people. The second phase of the project extends for four years to provide job opportunities and sources of income, and to realize the financial inclusion of more than 40,000 young men and women in 12 Yemeni governorates.
Silatech is also implementing a project in Morocco in partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Education for Employment foundation, with the aim of building the capabilities of Moroccan youth and providing them with the necessary skills to join the labor market, thus obtaining a source of income and securing a decent life for their families. So far, Silatech has provided about 1,900 job opportunities for young people in Morocco. It also signed an agreement with the Save the Children foundation to implement a new project in Somalia.
Silatech launched its Ramadan campaign to support linking youth to jobs in the Middle East and North Africa, as part of its continuous efforts to empower youth economically and socially around the world. The campaign aims to support the most marginalized youth around the world, by linking them to jobs and economic opportunities. It also focused on mobilizing resources and donations to support Silatech projects around the world.
Silatech, in cooperation with a wide network of partners, has worked on the economic empowerment of young people by linking them to jobs and entrepreneurship to overcome the challenges of unemployment, poverty and marginalization, by providing them with creative and technical skills and training opportunities and facilitating their access to the financing required to launch their entrepreneurial projects, enter the labor market and contribute to the development of their communities.
Source: Qatar News Agency