Help us fight for education for all in 2024
Global Youth Ambassadors
What will Theirworld do this year and beyond to tackle the global education crisis? And how can you join the mission to change the lives of children and young people?
It’s going to be another challenging year for global education – but also a year packed full of big moments and huge opportunities.
More than 260 million children – that’s one in 10 children worldwide – are out of school. And that number is growing because of conflicts and refugee crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond; climate events that disrupt education; and discrimination due to gender, disability and other issues.
Chronic underfunding is robbing the youngest children of the early years care and education they need.
But we remain convinced that change is possible. You can help us in our mission to give every child the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future.
What will we be doing in 2024?
We’ll continue to grow our impact by leveraging our resources, our projects, our campaigns, our Global Youth Ambassadors programme and our movement of businesses taking action for education.
It’s a great year to campaign for change, with more than 40 countries – home to 40% of the world’s population – holding national elections in 2024. As Theirworld President Justin van Fleet said in an article to kick off 2024: “This is a tremendous opportunity to raise the profile of positive issues we care about and to ensure empathy, understanding and respect win out over hate and discrimination.”
Throughout 2024, we’ll have a major focus on:
- Tackling the early years crisis. More than half of the world’s youngest children miss out on crucial early childhood care and education. We won’t let up the pressure on the G20 – chaired in 2024 by Brazil – to revitalise its Early Childhood Development Initiative and set measurable international targets for delivering early years interventions to every child. Theirworld has also set a bold five-year target of raising at least $1 billion in new funding and pledges for early childhood development.
- Delivering education in emergencies. Discrimination, emergencies and conflicts threaten the ability of young people to have a safe place to learn. Theirworld will continue working tirelessly to transform the lives of children in war-torn Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested last year that we work with his government to focus on support for early childhood education and accelerated learning programmes for science and mathematics. We’ll bring you updates on this and other vital projects.
- Growing our youth activism. Theirworld has more than 2,000 passionate Global Youth Ambassadors (GYAs) in over 120 countries. Over the next five years we want to recruit, train and build an even bigger network of 10,000 youth. During 2024, we will continue to feature inspiring stories about their local and global campaigning, training and advocacy on our website, newsletters and social media channels.
We have a track record of making an impact
Over the past two decades, Theirworld has:
- Engaged more than 11 million campaigners to sign the world’s biggest education petition.
- Enabled more than four million children to go to school and learn through our projects.
- Leveraged more than $100 million from the business community for education in emergencies.
- Set the target of 10% of education spending on early childhood education – a figure now recognised by governments at a United Nations-led summit.
And those are just some of the highlights. You can learn more here.
How you can get involved
Support a campaign. Fundraise or donate. Share our messages with family, friends and colleagues. Join us in the mission:
Follow and like us on Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Linkedin.
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