Give20 - The Project

ESN is launching a unique fundraising campaign Give20 in favour of UNICEF, which will run during 2009 to raise enough money in order to improve living conditions of disadvantage children and provide them with access to education. The fundraising activities will be organised throughout the year. All ESN sections as well as every cosmopolitan can participate in Give20. For more information about the project on international level, visit www.give20.eu

How can everybody participate?

Not only ESN sections but also everybody staying in Switzerland can help to collect money for the Give20 project. Every charitable donation is welcome!

Bank Account for Donation:

UNICEF pilot country

Bhutan - Education for All Children

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked state in the Himalayas, enriched with religious and cultural traditions. The overarching development philosophy of Gross National Happiness has poverty reduction as its priority. In recent decades Bhutan has experienced solid economic growth and the government is devoting significant portions of the national budget to health and education. These investments have led to striking reductions in child and maternal mortality. However, poverty is still evident in rural areas causing many people to migrate to the cities in search of jobs and better social services.

UNICEF’s activities

Together with the Bhutanese government, UNICEF started the Country Programme Action Plan focusing on health, water and sanitation, education, prevention of HIV/Aids and the protection of vulnerable children. Despite the geographical isolation UNICEF and its partners work on expanding the health network to remote and underserved areas. Water and sanitation systems are implemented both in communities and in schools. Also, UNICEF increases primary school enrolment by assuring equal access for all children and improving the quality of primary education. The ‘Druygel School’ for example, is a UNICEF supported project that gives children with a hearing disability the opportunity to learn sign language. Primary school teachers are trained in improving their professional skills and new multi-grade teaching materials are generated. As part of the country programme, UNICEF also attempts to create a safe environment for children. This involves the development of a child-friendly juvenile system that protects children en young people from violence, abuse and exploitation.

Results for children in education

From just a few schools and about 500 students (mostly boys) in the 1960s, Bhutan today has over 157,112 students in about 523 schools. The net primary enrolment (NER) increased from 53% in 1998 to 88% in 2008. With help of UNICEF more than 150 new community schools have been opened in recent years. In this way, more than 12.600 rural children are allowed to attend classes within an hour’s walk of their homes. Also many girls who had been kept out of school due to the danger of travelling long distances could enrol for the first time. Literacy programmes supported by UNICEF also give adults opportunities for education. More than 16.600 adults, mostly rural women, have benefited from these programmes. In addition, 100.000 children and their families and teachers in school have been reached with hand washing messages through UNICEF supported campaigns on water and sanitation. About 104 primary and community schools have to be built during to ensure 100% enrolment by 2013. And reaching the remaining 12,000 out-of-school children (where 12.5% does not attend school because of the need to work) will be the big challenge. Innovative approaches will be initiated to reach the un-reached children which include child monks and nuns in religious institutes. In 2009 for example, the education programme will support monastic education with English curriculum and functional arithmetic for child monks of pre-primary to Class III levels in 25 monastic schools.