In the News

This week, a new feature film titled 'Rule Breakers' highlights the stories of hope, courage and resilience of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team. In real life, ECW's Global Champion Somaya Faruqi led that team to victory in competitions around the world. Today, she has joined a long list of leading global advocates to call on leaders to listen to #AfghanGirlsVoices and call for a return to equality and equal access to quality education for all the girls and women of Afghanistan.

Baity Centers, supported by UNICEF and its partners, offer vital education, child protection, and health awareness services. Thanks to donors including Education Cannot Wait, the European Union, and the governments of Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, these centers continue to bring hope to families like Amira's, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn and thrive.

Baity Centers, supported by UNICEF and its partners, provide critical services to families through education, child protection, and health awareness. With the help of donors, including Education Cannot Wait, the European Union, the Governments of Japan and the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, these centers continue to offer hope to families like Hana’s, ensuring that every child has the chance to learn and thrive.

Mrs. Museveni further praised the Education Cannot Wait ( ECW) Fund, co-founded and primarily funded by UK, for its crucial support of refugee children's education in Uganda. 

The movie, a harrowing tale and a clarion call to return Afghanistan’s girls to the safety and hope of a quality education, releases today in the United States, Canada, South Africa and Sri Lanka, and Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, says the world should use International Women’s Day to push for the ending of the ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.

Now an engineering scholarship student in the United States, Faruqi is also an Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Global Champion, spearheading the launch of ECW’s global advocacy campaign—#AfghanGirlsVoices.

The #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign uses moving illustrations by a young Afghan female artist and determined testimonies from Afghan girls to amplify the voices of those left behind demanding their right to education. As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, ECW supports and protects holistic learning outcomes.

In addition, as part of our work in Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, South Ethiopia, and South-West Ethiopia regions, until 2024 we reached over 14,000 children with school meals, supported by Education Cannot Wait, World Vision Singapore, and other partners.

It was in this context that UNICEF, in partnership with the Education Office of Bossangoa Catholic Diocese (ECAC in its French acronym), thanks to the financial support of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), launched the building of a new complex made up of three classrooms, an office and new toilets, to offer Djibalo’s 427 pupils -including 210 girls – a learning environment worthy of the name.

FCA currently implements education projects in eight oblasts, including Kharkiv, focusing on school rehabilitation, safe spaces for learning, educational reform and support for teachers and students’ mental wellbeing. Projects are funded by European Union Humanitarian Aid, Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Education Cannot Wait global fund, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and FCA’s private donors and parishes in Finland.

As the world responds to the war in Ukraine, a UNICEF program delivered with funding from Education Cannot Wait is providing refugee girls and boys with remote learning, safe spaces and a new chance at hope.

The program was made possible with a fast-acting First Emergency Response grant from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the UN.

Darya’s first step back to learning happened at the Licurici Puppet Theater, which organized non-formal education activities as part of ECW-funded programming in Moldova, delivered by UNICEF in coordination with partners like the Norwegian Refugee Council and national partners like Step-by-Step Moldova.

Millions of children have been impacted by the war in Ukraine. More than 2,000 refugee learners are enrolled in the Moldovan National Education system with collaborative support from ECW, UNICEF and other partners during the project implementation period. ECW is calling on world leaders to provide an additional $600 million in funding to support the 250 million crisis-impacted children worldwide whose education has been disrupted by wars, climate change and other protracted crises.

There is a programme called Education Cannot Wait, which makes sure that refugees or internally displaced persons can get access to education. In the northeast of Nigeria, where we have a high number of these internally displaced persons, this programme is helping the children in the refugee camps to get an education.

This global education crisis will have vast impacts on our global society, and our quest for social justice. I think of the brave women of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, including our own ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, who broke gender norms on their quest to learn more about science, technology, engineering and math. Coming out next month, their story will be told in the inspiring movie Rule Breakers. But, much more needs to be done. Social justice does not exist for the women and girls of Afghanistan today, nor in many other parts of the world torn apart by brutal conflicts, forced displacement, climate change or oppressive societal norms.

Since ECW was founded just a few years ago, this global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, together with all our strategic donor partners and implementing partners, have reached a total of 11.4 million children with quality education. With increased funding support, we can provide millions more with access to quality education, and contribute to social justice.

This global education crisis will have vast impacts on our global society, and our quest for social justice. I think of the brave women of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, including our own ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, who broke gender norms on their quest to learn more about science, technology, engineering and math. Coming out next month, their story will be told in the inspiring movie Rule Breakers. But, much more needs to be done. Social justice does not exist for the women and girls of Afghanistan today, nor in many other parts of the world torn apart by brutal conflicts, forced displacement, climate change or oppressive societal norms.

Since ECW was founded just a few years ago, this global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, together with all our strategic donor partners and implementing partners, have reached a total of 11.4 million children with quality education. With increased funding support, we can provide millions more with access to quality education, and contribute to social justice.