2007 Clinton Global Initiative - Promise of Education in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations

Here's another copy of the transcripts from the CGI - regarding the importance of education in conflicted environments. There is some discussion of various corporate initiatives, including Proctor & Gamble's committment to providing clean water to children


Transcript

Plenary Session: Promise of Education in Conflict and Post Conflict Situations

September 26, 2007


ANNOUNCER: Welcome the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Thank you very much. I hope you're all still having a good day.
We are going to begin this plenary, which will be in three parts, first with the announcement of some commitments. I'd like to begin by asking Susan Arnold, the Vice-Chairman of Procter & Gamble, to come up here.
Their commitment is that Procter & Gamble will partner with the Children's Safe Drinking Water and 20 other organizations to provide clean drinking water to reduce severe diarrhoea and childhood death in 13 nations in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. In addition, working with UNICEF through its Pampers brand, P&G will contribute to the elimination of maternal and neo-natal tetanus by supporting UNICEF's procurement of close to 45 million tetanus vaccines.
This is worth about $20 million over five years for safe drinking water, another 2 million for the tetanus vaccine commitment. I'd just like to remind those of you who were here last year, at last year's meeting, P&G partnered with others to provide safe drinking water and hygiene education to a million children in Africa, 135 million litres of safe drinking water from PUR Practices by two packets by 2009. And to date, in keeping their last year's commitment, they have already reached 200,000 children. And they're actually on track to exceed these goals.
Now, building on that commitment, P&G and their partner organizations are going to provide an additional 2 billion litres of safe drinking water by 2012. It will save an estimated 10,000 lives. And this tetanus initiative will procure 45 million tetanus vaccines for use in developing countries. Each package of Pampers will cover the cost of one shot. So for those of you still of an age and a family circumstance, I urge you to go support this. Thank you so much, Susan. Let's give her a big hand. Thank you very, very much.
Now I'd like to invite to the stage Betsy Taylor, the chair of One Sky, Stephen B. Heintz, the president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jesse Fink, the managing director of Missionpoint Capital Partners. They have another partner, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. I don't know if their president, Dan Jones, is here. But if he is, I hope he'll come up. You did great on that Kosovo thing. Thanks.
Their commitment is to bring together a broad range of corporate and non-profit partners to develop a national call for action on climate change. It is valued at $50 million, and here's how it will work. One Sky will lead a broad coalition to develop and push the United States Government to deliver sweeping climate change solutions. They will execute a communications and field campaign with the objective of convincing the United States to match the European Union commitments on climate change.
In March of 2007, the European Union agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels, to increase the use of renewable energy to 20 percent of all energy consumed, to increase energy efficiency by 20 percent. You may remember on the morning panel when Vice President Gore was here and we were discussing this, I believe I said -- and if I didn't, I'm going to say it for the first time. We had a young man I know who works for Goldman Sachs who gave me a study that the company had commissioned, which said that if the United States simply reaches the energy efficiency levels of Japan and China, and India and Russia do the same, we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally by 20 percent. This is a big deal for all of us to be pursuing the same goal. And particularly since we now have an enormous amount of energy in the American investment community in getting all major carbon emitters to report their carbon footprint.
Merrill Lynch is leading the effort in America this year, but investors with total portfolios of $41 trillion are now involved in this. In all the major European companies, 75 percent are participating, 60 percent of the American companies, up from 47 percent last year. So we actually have a chance to get this done. And that's why this commitment is so important.
I think all of you know that 2006 was the hottest year on record in the United States. In case you were paying attention when I got out of the airplane yesterday afternoon coming back from the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Central High School crisis in my home state and I landed at Westchester Airport in the early evening, it was six degrees warmer than it had been at noon that day. And we were reaching another historically warm week here. We got a lot of states doing what they should do. We've got a lot of interest in the federal government in increased R&D, but we don't have a national goal and we don't have a real policy to try to bring us into alignment with the results that we achieve.
So I am personally very, very grateful to One Sky, to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, to Mission Point Capital Partners, to Jonathan Rose Companies, and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. And I would like to present this commitment to them and thank them and ask you to give them a hand.
Now, this next commitment, in my view, alone justifies the decision we made this year to have a separate track on education. And, of course, this plenary will involve a fascinating discussion of education ideas after we do phase two. That's phase three. So this is the last commitment I'm going to announce. In my view, this is something that demonstrates, as well as anything else CGI will do this year, what this conference is about, about getting people together and levering our various resources and strengths to really change lives.
In 2006, Angelina Jolie and my former national economic advisor, Gene Sperling, who now runs the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations, agreed to co-chair a new education partnership for children of conflict. The partnership's goal is to help fund new education projects for children in conflict, post conflict, refugee and emergency situations, which will be announced every year here at CGI.
Their first year has had an inspiring start. Eighteen commitments in places from Iraq to Columbia to Northern Uganda to Afganistan to Darfur. There's no doubt that by expanding and improving access to education, we can have a profound impact on some of the world's most vulnerable children. This is a commitment that showcases perfectly the commitment of this meeting to getting results and not just talking about problems. I'd like to give you (an) idea of the scope and impact of these 18 projects and how they help fund new education projects for children in conflict, post conflict, refugee and emergency situations.
At this cost of $150 million, consider the combined impact of these investments. UNICEF, along with Microsoft, the International Rescue Committee and Hewlett Packard, will launch a $30 million distance learning initiative to help 150,000 children, including children from the Iraq conflict and children of the occupied Palestinian Territories. The International Rescue Committee is expanding its Healing Classrooms initiative to help 70,000 children in Afghanistan and 41,000 affected by Darfur.
The Save the Children Alliance will expand education programs in places like Jordan and Lebanon to serve Iraqi refugees and in Darfur and in Southern Sudan. The Sesame Workshop has committed to launch Sesame Street Afghanistan.
You guys are supposed to come up here as I mention your groups. Sesame Street Afghanistan to teach Afghan children not only to read but to understand words like "tolerance" and "reconciliation." The American Jewish World Service has committed to raise over $2 million to support education in Darfur, Sri Lanka, Burma and Guatemala. The Norwegian Refugee Council will expand its accelerated learning programs to serve over 100,000 out-of-school youth in Southern Sudan and Iraqi refugees in Lebanon and Syria.
The Children's Investment Fund Foundation has committed an additional $3 million to expand the International Rescue Committee's education work in Northern Uganda. Unbound Philanthropy has committed to fund a half a million dollars in projects developed through the partnership. The Esquela Nueva Foundation will spread its philosophy of holistic child-centered education to nearly 9,000 children in conflict-affected areas of Columbia.
The Center for Mind-Body Medicine will provide psychological counselling and support to 25,000 school children traumatized by the conflict in Gaza to allow them to learn effectively in the classroom. The GSM Association is working with the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights or refugees to bring wireless connectivity to train teachers and improve learning in Northern Uganda. The High Commissioner for Refugees, in partnering with Nike, Microsoft, WPP and others, is using the Global Initiative to re-launch 9million.org, a grassroots internet portal designed to help provide education and sports to all refugee children.
The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation has committed 1.2 million to build a boarding school in Southern Sudan. And he is here, and the hero of Dave Eggers’ magnificent book, "What is the What." So I want to particularly recognize Mr. Deng here. Give him a hand.
MR. DENG: Thank you.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: We have up here on this stage representatives of every group I have mentioned.
And I'd now like to invite the co-chairs of the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, Gene Sperling and Angelina Jolie, here. Let me remind you, as they come up to receive the certificate, these people have really done a lot. But remember the title of the website. There are nine million displaced children who cannot go to school because of things that happened to them and their families that were completely beyond their control. So if any of you want to do something good and you came here and haven't decided what to support, look at this. You know you got a network of people who will get a very high rate of return and high rate of efficiency. And we've got still a breathtaking number of children to reach. But in the meanwhile, let's give them all a hand for doing something profoundly great. (Applause)
Now, before we do our plenary, we're going to hear a brief address from a person I'm very glad to welcome here - the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Yang Jiechi. He wanted to be here this morning when we were discussing climate change. No nation has a bigger stake in trying to deal with this in a way that does not interrupt its economic progress. And I personally have enjoyed working with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and with the Chinese Ministry of Health because our foundation runs a major AIDS project there all over the country. And it's been incredibly rewarding.
Before he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister Yang was Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and before that he was the Ambassador of China to the United States from 2001 to 2005. I think he waited until I left because he was afraid I would talk his ear off.
We are deeply honored to have him here. I am particularly grateful for the work that he has done to try to help resolve a very difficult crisis with regard to North Korea and the nuclear issue and for the receptivity that he has had in trying to change United Nations policy on Darfur to make it more effective and save lives. And, of course, because of the support of the government of China, we are able to save a lot of lives from HIV and AIDS. I have rarely seen a country change its position so rapidly and so effectively to the benefit of its children.
So Foreign Minister Yang, please come up. And, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Foreign Minister of China, Yang Jiechi. (Applause)
FOREIGN MINISTER YANG: President Clinton, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, it's a great pleasure for me to attend the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative at the invitation of President Clinton. President Clinton has in recent years made admirable efforts to promote international cooperation from poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and the prevention and treatment of HIV-AIDS.
The Clinton Global Initiative, sponsored by President Clinton, addresses many issues, including sustainable development, poverty alleviation, health, education, and climate change. And it is important in boosting international cooperation in resolving these global issues that concern the interests of all countries. I greatly appreciate this initiative taken by President Clinton. Here, I would like to speak on the topic of economic development and climate change. By the way, this time I've come for the UN General Assembly session, and climate change features prominently during the session, and I'm very glad to have this opportunity to be in your midst. And thank you for giving me this stage.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're living in an age of deepening economic globalization, increasing scientific and technological innovations and unprecedented opportunity for human development. On the other hand, global economic development is confronted with many challenges, particularly mounting pressure on energy and resources and acute ecological degradation. Global warming, rising sea level, extreme weather and weather-related natural disasters caused by climate change are adversely affecting the natural ecological system and the human habitat. Climate change has become a pressing challenge for the international community.
A review of history shows that climate change occurs in the course of development. It is both an environment issue and a development issue. But ultimately, it is a development issue. As pointed out in the United Nations framework convention on climate change, most of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases originated in developed countries, where per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low.
The share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow as they work to meet their social and development needs. To prevent climate change from endangering human survival and development while maintaining economic development and meeting the legitimate demand of the people, this is an issue that concerns the well being and the future of all mankind. Economic development and the environmental protection and efforts to tackle climate change should be mutually reinforcing rather than mutually conflicting. For developing countries like China, whose level of economic development is still low and whose people are yet to live a better life, the most depressing issue for them is to grow the economy and raise people's living standards.
Efforts to tackle climate change should promote economic development and not be pursued at the expense of the economic development. On the other hand, we must not fail to see that the economic development model of high-energy consumption, high pollution, and high emissions is not sustainable. And the path of pursuing development first and treating pollution next is not a viable one. The best environment policy is also the best economic policy. (Applause)
Countries should all incorporate -- thank you -- Countries should all incorporate environmental protection into their overall economic development strategies and take resolute measure to follow a path of sustainable development. This will enable us to address environment issues through economic development and promote economic development by resolving environment issues, thus ensuring both economic development and the environmental protection.
Ladies and gentlemen, China will remain the largest developing country for (a) long time to come, and there are imbalances between urban areas of different regions and between economic and social development. Its projected GNP is behind the 100th place globally. And there are still over 20 million poor rural people and more than 22 million urban residents receiving basic living allowances. China is faced with the daunting task of growing its economy and eliminating poverty. The Chinese government, with a strong sense of responsibility to the Chinese people and the people of the world, takes climate change seriously and has taken complete measures to tackle it.
At the APAC economic leaders meeting in Sydney earlier this month, President Hu Jintao reaffirmed China's position on climate change and spoke on the forceful measures it has adopted in addressing climate change. A national leading group on climate change headed by Premier Wen Jiabao has been set-up and China has promulgated a series of related laws and regulations. It released a national program on climate change in June, the first developing country to do so. China has contributed its share to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by carrying out a series of policy measures, including economic adjustment, improving the energy mix, raising energy efficiency and forestation.
Statistics show that by raising energy efficiency alone, China saved 800 million tons of standard coal from 1991 to 20005 and the equivalent of reducing 1.8 billion tons of CO2. China has set the targets of reducing energy intensity by 20 percent, reducing discharge of majoring pollutants by 10 percent, and the increasing forest cover from 18.2 percent to 20 percent for the period between the end of 2005 and 2010. All these steps show the Chinese Government's commitment to tackling climate change. The Chinese Government pursues sustainable development as a national strategy and the environmental protection as a basic national policy. It believes that environmental problems should be resolved through development and is actively exploring ways to ensure coordinated environmental protection and economic development.
China is fully implementing what we call the scientific thinking on development, which puts people first and aims at promoting comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development. We are endeavoring to transform the inefficient economic growth model, and we are working to ensure balance between economic development and population and resources and the pursuit of harmony between man and nature. China is pursuing an eco-friendly development path to achieve economic development, make life better for its people, and protect the environment.
We are committed to controlling greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening our capacity to adapt to climate change so as to play a constructive role in tackling climate change. Ladies and gentlemen, as the impact of climate change is global in nature and concerns the interests of all countries, this issue can only be addressed through extensive international cooperation. Developed countries should face up to their historical responsibility and the reality of their high per capita emissions. They should follow the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, which is embodied in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol and take the lead in emission reduction.
They should help developing countries improve their capacity to tackle climate change and take the path of sustainable development by providing financial assistance, transferring technologies, and assisting them in capacity building and adopting to climate change. Developing countries, on their part, should take measures in light of their conditions, give high priority to introducing advanced clean technologies, make their due contribution to tackling climate change.
The Chinese government will, as always, promote and participate in international cooperation on climate change. It will continue to take an active part in the negotiations on environmental conventions concerning climate change and the biodiversity among trade and the environment. It will promote international cooperation and clean development mechanisms and technology transfer, take part in other cooperation mechanisms such as the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and the Climate and support their supplementary role. China will continue to make unremitting efforts to tackle climate change.
Not long an ago a leading group was set up in the Chinese Foreign Ministry to provide guidance to China's diplomatic efforts to address climate change. As China's foreign minister, I am the head of this group. We have also appointed a special representative for negotiations on climate change. This, once again, shows the Chinese Government's commitment to participate in international cooperation in addressing climate change.
Ladies and gentlemen, peace and development are the core of our times. We shall respect history, address current problems, be future oriented, and carry out cooperation in good faith. By doing so, we can certainly strike a balance between promoting economic growth and tackling climate change and realize the harmonious co-existence between man and nature. Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause)
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our panellists. The President of the Republic of Columbia, Alvaro Uribe; Founder of the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, Valentino Achak Deng; Minister of Education for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Mohammed Haneef Atmar; and Co-chair of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, Angelina Jolie. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our moderator, New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof.
MR. KRISTOF: Thank you very much. We have just a terrific panel on an issue that could not be more important, where you don't get more bang for the buck. And I might say also that it's shaping up as a more auspicious occasion than the last time I spoke in proximity with President Clinton.
I was giving the commencement address at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. And right at the same time, on the same day, it turned out, a hundred yards away who should be scheduled to speak? President Clinton. So as I walk in, I see these crowds walking in the other direction. And I have taken my daughter out of school and – my nine-year-old daughter - and I didn't want her to see her father totally humiliated so I said: "You know, Caroline, you should be prepared. You may be the only person in the entire audience because President Clinton is speaking right across the street."
And you know what she said? She looked up at me and thought for a moment and said, "Daddy, can I go hear President Clinton?" So I just want to clarify President Clinton will not be speaking across the street. Okay? Now, we have just an incredible panel with extraordinary knowledge about the situation in conflict zones and education around the world.
President Alvaro Uribe of Columbia. And Columbia is important because it has a number of ventures in rural education underway. And, indeed, some of those with the help of NGOs that are represented here. And then Valentino Achak Deng. For those of you who haven't read it, the book, "What is the What" is the story of Valentino's just extraordinary life from Southern Sudan to here. And it's an amazing saga and an amazing book and a testament to how important education is. And he's now building a school back in Sudan. Mohammaed Haneef Atmar from Afghanistan, the Education Minister of Afghanistan. You think, you know, that's an extraordinarily tough job. Well, previously, under the Taliban, he was working for various NGOs in education issues. That was pretty tough.
And then Angelina Jolie, best known for her work as an advocate of refugees. Oh, come on! Angelina has done extraordinary – she may not be best known for it – but she has done extraordinary work travelling around tirelessly to some really forgotten places in the world, from really, you know, rural places in Cambodia to Darfur more times than, I believe, all the Secretary Generals of the UN put together and has been very active... (Applause) ... very active on these issues. So let me start.
President Uribe, there are so many issues out there needed in terms of fighting poverty. And we've been exposed to them. Health issues. All kinds of issues. Why is education so important for development? And, in fact, I think the reason it tends to get neglected is because it's seen as not so urgent, not a life and death matter on any one day. So why should we be giving this focus on education?
PRESIDENT URIBE: Thank you, Moderator, President Clinton, distinguished panellists, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me. It is a great honor. And thank you, President Clinton, for this excellent initiative. In Columbia we have three main objectives in our administration: To consolidate security, to consolidate investment confidence, and to fulfil our social goals.
Education is the first and the least of our social goals. Why? Because to sustain democracy, people need to know that democracy gives people the opportunity to ascend in the social ladder. And the way for the people to have the ability to ascend the social ladder is education. In addition to that, education creates opportunities for more productivity, more competitiveness, more income. A better (inaudible) of income.
We have problems and we have challenges and tools. One big problem we cannot omit is that illicit drugs in my country is an obstacle for people to have opportunities for education. We have many challenges in our country. One is to get, for the year 2010, full coverage in basic education. Now we have 93.
The other is to begin with infant education for people under five. We are only beginning (inaudible) people. The other is to get 6 million Columbians in vocational training. The other is to get 34 coverage – 34 percent of coverage in university education. The other is to provide 46,000 people who have immobilized from the tourist groups to provide them with basic education, with university opportunities, with jobs, with vocational training.
The other is to provide 600,000 displaced people with education. You have tools. I will mention the least of some tools. Later on you can choose which tool ask to me about. One tool is rehabilitation. Another tool is families in action. The other tool is (a) new school whose creator is here with us. This a very important tool.
Other tool is to respect the state agency for children welfare, to be able to provide food to 12 million children. Now we have got 9 million. Other tool is to provide the students graduated from vocational training with micro-lending, with one system we call Bank of Opportunities. When you provide the family with micro-lending, the family gets tranquility and the children attend the school. These are some of the things and some of the tools.
MR. KRISTOF: Thank you, President Uribe.
Minister Atmar, one of my heroes is Mukhtaran Bibi, in Pakistan, who used the compensation money after she had been gang-raped, to start schools in her area because she thought that the best way to fight extremism and fundamentalism and the values that led to her rape were precisely to educate people. I wondered if, in the context of Afghanistan, and to some who were there during the period of the Taliban, to what extent is education a force for fighting? I guess what I'm asking is: Can schools be as effective in fighting extremism as gun ships, for example?
MINISTER ATMAR: First let me take this opportunity to thank President Clinton and the organizers for inviting us.
Second, before I answer your question let me tell you about something that is very important for us these days in Afghanistan to see how much our women and men value education and why they are doing that. And unfortunately over the past 14 months that I am the minister of education, 115 of my teachers and students have been brutally killed by the terrorists, 40 percent of them women. In June this year unfortunately one of the worst incidents in my life happened when the terrorists attacked one of our girls schools. Actually your people covered that story. After three hours I went to the school to see the injured girls -- actually, two girls were shot dead. Their teacher and three other girls were badly injured. So I went to see one of the injured girls in the hospital. It was a clinic rather than a hospital. I couldn't stop my tears. So I again engaged her in a discussion and said: "Look my child, I will take care of your treatment." She said: "I'm not worried about that. What I am worried about," she turned to me and said, "I am concerned about our school. Make sure that our school doesn't get closed. " And that was a time I made one of my biggest commitments in life and I said: "My child, whatever I have in my power, I would make sure that your school doesn't get closed."
MR. KRISTOF: If there had been schools earlier, then do you think – if those men who committed those attacks, if they had gone to school - would such attacks had been less likely?
MINISTER ATMAR: Of course the school was protected by the communities. This is one of our key policies that we are trying to actually give that responsibility to the parents and the communities. We say to them if you want education for your kids, it is your responsibility to protect them and we, as the government, will do everything to support you. It is not just protection for your school, we want you to manage your schools. We want a new governance system in our education; that is, people led, parents led system. I mean, the question we need to ask is 'Why are Afghan women and men valuing education to this extent that that they are even taking that kind of a risk to send their kids to schools'? Despite the forces of terrorism and what they do so brutally and still there are these courageous people, men and women, who are sending their kids.
There are four key words that I have often heard from them: Education is important for survival. Education is important for peace. It brings peace. Education is important for prosperity. Education is important for having a voice in the system. It is important in terms of survival that the kids of an educated mother have better chances of survival. With women trained and educated, you can deliver the most crucial services, public goods, health and education. It's important in terms of peace, because they think that the children of an uneducated woman will be less susceptible to the manipulation by the warlords and the terrorists. That educated men will have opportunities rather than serving the terrorists. It is important in terms of having a voice in the system. Yes, Afghanistan is beginning to become a democratic society, but educated women will be able to have a better voice in that system. And it's important in terms of prosperity that there's no capital more strategic than human capital for freedom from poverty. And that exactly is their understanding and, therefore, it is so much valuable for them to make sure that their kids are educated.
MR. KRISTOF: In that context of education as a force for stability, (Angelina) you have just returned from Iraq and Syria and were looking at Iraq refugee issues. There's concern about the creation of a new large Diaspora that is not getting adequately educated that may be a force for instability. What did you see? Can you give us a little sense of those unfulfilled education needs in that community?
MS. JOLIE: First I would like to say in all situations it's kind of a strange thing. When I was preparing for this I kind of thought "What are we all going to say, what can you say, what can we all say to encourage everybody to understand that education is so important." It seems like such an unnecessary thing to do. Everybody in this room is very educated and knows the value we are talking about.
The children in conflict and refugee children, because they have lost everything, they have nothing and they have been traumatized and they have been hurt and they have witnessed more than we pray our own children will ever have to see. All they have left is their minds. All they have left is a possible future. And what are they going to do and what are they going to be. And they are susceptible to so much and they are feeling so much. And if we can take these young people, who are such great young people and they are survivors and they are kids, and give them amazing opportunities and say we are going to help show you how to learn about reconciliation, we are going to teach you about what it is to be a teacher, a lawyer, an engineer. And we are going to instil in you the knowledge of how to then build your country and have a future and it's not just that we want them to be these things. We don't want them to be other things. We don't want them to grow up and not having anything to live for and not feel that they are of any use and not know what to do. And then they are subject to anything. And there many, many schools of people that do encourage very bad behavior that will offer a free lunch and an education. And it's something we should be concerned about and we don't want them to turn to those schools.
So when I was there, there were many, many children out of school. And those who are in school in (inaudible) they are three to a desk but very few of them that can get into any school and do I have a moment to tell a story?
MR. KRISTOF: Sure.
MS. JOLIE: Just the type of – the picture of the child that we are talking about for me. I met two men. I met a young man who had been, for religious reasons, he had been tortured for three days and he had been set on fire and thrown in the garbage. He was very, very badly burned and infected. He was begging on the streets. He tried to get into one country. He couldn't. He attempted to get some medical aid and squads came in to kill everybody, so he had to leave. He begged his way into Syria and still living as a beggar and his burns were becoming increasingly more infected.
He ran into a little boy, who was also a refugee, he was selling tissues. They don't have camps they have to get some kind of assistance from DCR but that's how refugees are living in Syria. And this little boy ended up giving this man a little bit of water and then he said: "Can you help me? You can give me some begging money, but I need somebody to help me fix my wounds." And this kid was scared and weeks went by and the kid agreed to do it. They unwrapped these wounds and, forgive me, they are covered in maggots and this little boy got scared and he ran. The man said he came back, he came back not just for the money. He came back because he was a good kid. When I met them they had been together for about four months. This kid had been treating this man, helping him cleaning out his wounds, wrapping him every day. He stopped giving him money he just did it because they were friends and he continued to sell tissues every day on the street. So I said to this little boy, he was about eight, you will be the most amazing doctor one day. You are quite extraordinary and I watched him undo the bandages and all of these things. I said: "Would you like to be a doctor?" And he got real upset. He said: "No, I have to sell tissues." I said: "I am so sorry, but if we could find a way, would you like to be a doctor." He said: "Yes, ma'am, but I need to sell tissues."
That's the kind of kid we are talking about. He is an amazing force for good and he would be the doctor I would want. But he's the type of kid -- they are not just begging and they are not just sitting there with nothing to do, they don't want to get involved in bad activity. They are great young people. And we need to help them be doctors.
MR. KRISTOF: People like that unfortunately are falling through the cracks all over the world especially in conflict areas. But one who against all odds did not fall through is Valentino. And I believe that that is, in part, through a refugee schooling program funded in part by Save The Children and UNHCR. So, if any of you have ever contributed to those groups, then you can feel some pride in Valentino's extraordinary success here. Valentino, can you talk a little bit about your own unbelievable journey and the role that education -- give us a window of how education helped shape that journey and led you to be right here tonight.
MR. VALENTINO: I am from South Sudan. I was born in 1980. Two years after my birth a civil war broke out in my country. I was between the North and the South. Seven years later, in 1987, I was separated from my family and I walked across 800 miles on food to go to Ethiopia, feeding on wild fruits and leaves of trees and dodging bullets across unforgiving (inaudible) zones of Southern Sudan. When I arrive in Ethiopia, I was told about this idea of education. I was not alone. There were over 16,000 unaccompanied minors in that refugee camp that all came from Southern Sudan. We asked to join the schools. And the schools we joined were not regular schools. I began learning letters under a tree. And I had to write on the dirt. I did not have a pen or a pencil or an exercise book and so were thousands of my fellow countrymen who were joining the schools at the camp – more children. I was wondering what all this about education was going to be. But there was one thing that bothers me was the fact that I was separated from my family. I did not understand about the so-called education at that time. But a few months later the UNHCR, Save the Children and many other NGOs began to support the education programs in the camp. We began receiving a few pencils and exercise book. Two people had to break a pencil and break an exercise book. And we began to enjoy the idea of education. First of all, I did not even want to go to school before this pencil and exercise book came. All I wanted to do was go back to Southern Sudan, but surprisingly one day one my friend came back from the school and said they were building (inaudible) in addition to pencils. So I went the next day to get my biscuit and they did not continue distributing the (inaudible). Now a few years later, three years in Ethiopia there was another political turmoil and we had to be kicked-out of the refugee camps and we trekked across the semi-Arab zone of Southern Sudan to go to Kenya. In 1992 I arrived in Kenya. And at that point I had witnessed the Southern Sudan the massacres that were taking place. The bombings of the villages, the killings of innocent people.
I need no one at that time to tell me what was happening in my country. And my teachers lectured to us that the reason our country is at war was first of all lack of education. Many people in Southern Sudan were denied proper education. And many people in Southern Sudan were being manipulated by policies of the war and the propaganda and we had to change Sudan. We must accept the idea of being educated. I joined my schools again in Kakuma in 1993. The Kenyan government again provided teachers. The UNHCR founded our education. And it was a free school accept that I had to sit under a tree, sit on a stone or on a log. And then my teacher did not have a chalkboard and chalk itself to write on. But we had hopes. Again, the donation drops in, relief supplies dropped into the camp and we began to build our own schools. And we had permanent structures.
Right now there are 21 primary schools in Kokuma where I grew up and three secondary schools. But then it was in Kokuma where I realized education was not only an important thing in anyone's life, but it was a necessity for anyone who wants to live a better life. Growing up in Southern Sudan and in the refugee camp and being told always the problem in my country was the Arabs, again Africans, it was the Muslims, again Christians and that the North did not like the South was something I would not have come to understand had I not been educated. I started reading newspapers and reading articles to fully understand what was the problem in my country and, as I speak to you, if you tell me that the problem in Sudan or in the South or the North was Islamic or Christian, again, Muslim, I will say no because religion had never been the problem in the South. No. I will not accept that. Today, if you tell me that the problem in the South was because Southern Sudanese did not like the idea of even Arabic culture to be taught in the South, I would say no. Because the problem was the small elites who wanted to control the country, wanting to step into that power and whoever was opposed to that was attacked.
That is why my people became the victims. That is why we lost almost three million in Southern Sudan over 21 years. In Kokuma I joined drama groups and became a youth leader through education. I became a peer counsellor. And I would have been.... My colleagues in (had) gone through the same atrocities that I went through. And when I explained the same story that we had before, someone would say: "Oh, if you can bear with this, I can bear with it as well." How would I have learned to re-counsel someone or give counselling to someone if it were not because of education?
It happened that my flight again to America was scheduled on September 11, 2001. I was leaving behind everything. And knew that I did not know much about the United States. But there was only one reason that I trusted to go to a new country, the fact that I would speak the language of someone I don't know. And if I know how to speak English, why do I fear? When would you learn that if you are not educated? Today I have come to notice we, as the people of the world, have much more in common then we even know. And we can only be able to learn that if we spread education to everyone in any corner of the world.
MR. KRISTOF: And Valentino, you not only talk the talk, you walk the walk. Every penny from your book and also Dave Eggars revenues, they are all going to a school that you are building in Sudan. I believe that you are still looking for a little additional funding, hint, hint. One of those many under-funded needs and education all over the world.
MR. DENG: I said before that my original flight was on September 11. I was stranded in Nairobi for two and a half weeks and I landed in New York at JFK on September 25. I found out, due to the new security arrangement, that my flight had been changed again. I was sent to a new place as opposed to being sent to San Jose in California, which I really was so willing -- because I had looked at the map and knew that San Jose was not cold and I was worried -- and I was worried if I get sent to Fargo it will be difficult to start a new living. So I began wondering, but I was told that I was going to Atlanta and I confirmed that Atlanta was in the United States. That was not a problem.
I arrive in Atlanta and began doing speaking engagements at local schools and colleges and it was in Atlanta where I met with Angelina two weeks after I arrived. Wasn't that funny? And what I did was that I realized through my speaking engagements that I was not going to be able to tell much about my own life. And I wanted so much to help people understand what was happening in my country. And that continued to happen in Darfur today. So I began to seek a writer to help me write my biography and I was introduced to Dave Eggars. We met and we became friends. We went to my first NBA game in Atlanta where I enjoyed everything, but the cheerleaders it was a new thing to me. After the book came out I decided that I wanted to be able to give back, that I wanted to be able to make a child in Southern Sudan and everywhere smile and through that smile I would feel the fulfilment and I will continue to forget my worst past. So we committed the proceeds from the book into building second schools in Southern Sudan.
I visited Southern Sudan in December 2003 and reunited with my family. And I went back two months ago and we are going to build a second school. We will begin with the first one in November and aim to build five schools. How I am going to build this school is going to be different. I go and meet with the grassroot people and hoping that once I begin the school, I will be able to see the difference I have made within two or three years and then I go on from there.
MR. KRISTOF: And one measure of the extraordinary unmet need for education in Southern Sudan is that a girl in Southern Sudan is actually more likely to die in childbirth than she is to become literate. Maternal mortality lifetime risk is greater than the probability of her becoming literate in Southern Sudan, which is a measure of the challenges we face – unmet challenges. I think one of the things that Americans probably don't appreciate, and you alluded to it and Mr. Atmar did as well, is the attitudes towards education. In this country we are used to our kids saying "Oh school, I have to go to school again." We think of kids not being thrilled at that idea.
And, on the other hand, if you travel around the world, you know that at this very moment there are going to be thousands of kids crying right now because they have to dropout of school because they can't afford a school uniform or a school fee or because it's too far away, or some other obstacle. I am wondering if - let me just throw this out - this sense of just desperate desire to get education, is that something that you have seen across the board within the places that you have been?
MS. JOLIE: I think we would all say yes to that. Absolutely. I took three kids to school this morning that weren't that excited about it. It is always very – it is a very emotional thing - especially when you ask them what they want to be. You ask them what they want to be and they will give you actress. Not one of the most noble professions, but you ask them there and they all want to be great things because they all want to do great things for their countries.
And I hear you speak and I just think we often hear about your country today, we hear something today going on with Darfur, Southern Sudan still. So many. And aren't we lucky we have men like you that have had an education that are going to do great things and help deal with these – such great challenges and help make it better? And understanding that's what we are all really talking about and you are that great example.
PRESIDENT URIBE: In my country, we find more and more people are eager to get an education. For instance, we have an institution to lend money to university students. Our aim is to (inaudible) apply to institution by six. Six times more students, six times more amount of money to lend to them, primary school, secondary school, the necessity for children under five to go to the school, we find obstacles. We need to build more schools to connect the schools, to enlarge the payroll of teachers, to improve the education -- the level of education of the teachers. We need to provide many families with subsidies. For them to send their children to school and we need to provide the children with nutrition. Although, we haven't provided nutrition, we also need to provide nutrition to three million poor children in our country. This is a challenge for that to come in here, but is one big problem, big obstacle against education in our country. Illegal drugs.
Therefore we need to fix illegal drugs because illegal drugs, the drug dealers, the terrorists group, relying for instance (inaudible) families that they have to grow illegal drugs; that they cannot send their children to schools. Therefore, we need to fix illegal drugs. And we need to replace the income for the families. One very important point, here there are plenty of donors and I want to invite them to consider this option for my country. This program is called ... Forest Ranger Families. Columbia has 51 percent of its territory still in jungle. Drug dealers invite families to come, the jungle down and to plant the trees for illegal drugs.
What we are doing to assign contracts with families (inaudible) drugs. For them to keep the jungle, to provide jungle recovery. And we pay to every family $2,000 per year. We begun this project three years ago and, so far, we have completed 50,000 families. But we need 180,000 families. This problem is under the supervision of the United Nations. It's very effective as a tool against the global warming. And of course in a country with a long history of violence it is necessary to teach values. We Columbians need to learn how to live in the community, how to solve problems equally, to teach values, for us to learn values it is very important in Columbia. And to (inaudible) education. It is very important (inaudible) the in our company of NGO's. We need NGOs at a level for education and they don't receive payments from the government and, of course, they need donors to help them get the funds.
MR. KRISTOF: Just to follow up on the point you raised about subsidies. I think we intuitively think of expanding education by building schools, but there has been a lot of research to show that one can also increase education very cost effectively in many places by having school lunches, for example, as an inducement to parents to send kids to school. 17 cents a day by the UN World Food Programme. If you build latrines for girls in schools, then you dramatically increase the number of girls who stay in school. If you de-worm kids, that may be the most cost-effective way of all of increasing education. We are just about out of time, but Angie, I would just like to ask you for those people who are interested in pursuing this issue, how can they find out more about unmet needs that they might want to find out more about?
MS. JOLIE: We are all working together -- that is the thing we have discussed -- that for children in conflict as you mentioned there are so many different ways. They are very special circumstances, whether it be that these are children that have to work or that these children that don't have food and we have to figure out a way for school lunches and there are many different programs, many different countries, and many different types of needs. Security concerns, specific concerns for girls. So the need is all of us.
There's not one specific act. So there's a kind of menu from some of us and from the education partnership for children conflict. We are working together and we are working in many different countries. There is a menu that has been kind of put together. What we have tried to do is look for people that are already doing great work, trying to put together to explain to you here's what they are doing, here's how they could help, here's what country, etc., and try to lay it out as clearly as possible. Trust us, we have done the research. We know people, so please try to get involved. All of us here, I am sure, have different websites and different places to go and that's certainly one of them. And please finish.
MINISTER ATMAR: I was actually coming back to that first question.
MR. KRISTOF: We are officially out of time.
MINISTER ATMAR: In Afghanistan we don't have the demand problem for education. The challenge there is how to meet that demand. It is primarily about supplies. Teachers, particularly female teachers, is a key constraint there. We have to teach a new generation of female teachers. We have to build more schools. Only 40 percent of the 9,000 schools in Afghanistan have buildings and still the parents are sending their children to schools that are literally in open spaces. And the issue of improving quality through developing a value base and the relevant curriculum is there. So, indeed, what we are trying to do in Afghanistan is to use the generosity of our international partners, as well as the Afghans themselves, and translate that generosity into meeting the critical needs of education in that country.
MR. KRISTOF: I think one of the reasons the impediments of why people don't act more on this issue is the sense that it is huge and hopeless and just so vast that it is hard to make a difference. But I would like to leave you with is one Hawaiian proverb or Hawaiian story. The man who comes across the kid on the beach and all these starfish get washed-up on the beach and the kid is throwing the star fish back. The man says to the kid: "What's the point of this? You never throw all of them back. It makes no difference." And the kid says: "Well, it sure makes a difference to that one." Indeed it really makes a difference to all those individuals out there. I would like you to please join me in thanking the extraordinary panellists, not only for their contributions today, but for their great work on this issue. Thank you.