As a CoEd supporter, you know the value of education. You’ve put textbooks into the hands of Guatemalan students for the first time, witnessed students demonstrating their tech skills in brand new computer centers, seen classrooms transform under the skill of a trained teacher, and celebrated the accomplishments of students in the Scholarship & Youth Development Program. That’s why we are thrilled to share that the UN has put new emphasis on the value of education too! You may have heard that in 2015, the UN laid out 17 sustainable development goals to transform our world. Well, not only is quality education one of those goals, but a separate report by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) explained that education is critical to achieving all of the goals!
This Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report was prepared using research gathered by educational experts and institutions from around the world. Read on to learn how the GEM Report connected education to each sustainable development goal and how your support of CoEd (especially our Scholarship Program) is moving the world closer to each one!
Goal 1: “Education is critical to lifting people out of poverty.”
Orlando participated in three CoEd programs. He recently graduated from the University of San Carlos with a degree in accounting!
Goal 2: “Education plays a key role in helping people move towards more sustainable farming methods, and in understanding nutrition.”
Scholarship students from Patzún learned about innovative, sustainable farming methods on a field trip.
Goal 3: “Education can make a critical difference to a range of health issues, including early mortality, reproductive health, spread of disease, healthy lifestyles and well-being.”
CoEd scholarship students participate in a variety of workshops on self-esteem, healthy relationships, and risk factors throughout the school year.
Goal 5: “Education for women and girls is particularly important to achieve basic literacy, improve participative skills and abilities, and improve life chances.”
The Thousand Girls Initiative will expand our Scholarship & Youth Development Program to 1,000 girls across Guatemala, who will help to form a new generation of educated Guatemalan women!
Goal 6: “Education and training increase skills and the capacity to use natural resources more sustainably and can promote hygiene.”
Scholarship students in Santiago distributed dental hygiene kits in their community for a service project.
Goal 8: “There is a direct link among such areas as economic vitality, entrepreneurship, job market skills and levels of education.”
CoEd scholarship students welcomed a professional development panel to practice their interviewing skills.
Goal 9: “Education is necessary to develop the skills required to build more resilient infrastructure and more sustainable industrialization.”
Milvia graduated from CoEd’s Scholarship & Youth Development program last year and is now on her way to becoming an architect.
Goal 10: “Where equally accessible, education makes a proven difference to social and economic inequality.”
Our Thousand Girls Initiative is leveling the playing field by including 75% girls in the Scholarship Program. Meanwhile, we’ve seen boys in the program become advocates for gender equality as they learn alongside their peers.
Goal 12: “Education can make a critical difference to production patterns (e.g. with regard to the circular economy) and to consumer understanding of more sustainably produced goods and prevention of waste.”
Scholarship students from Chimaltenango learned about vehicle distribution during a field trip to Motos Masesa.
Goal 14: “Education is important in developing awareness of the marine environment and building proactive consensus regarding wise and sustainable use.”
Scholarship students from Sacatepéquez went on a field trip to Ecofiltro to learn about sustainable clean water practices.
Goal 16: “Social learning is vital to facilitate and ensure participative, inclusive and just societies, as well as social coherence.”
Since graduating from CoEd’s Scholarship Program, Teofila has started teaching at her local elementary school and providing affordable medical care to her community, and she joined a local board that oversees elections.
Goal 17: “Lifelong learning builds capacity to understand and promote sustainable development policies and practices.”
92% of CoEd scholarship students have influenced their younger siblings to stay in school, and over 50% are even footing the bill! We call that a sustainable investment in human potential.
That’s not all! The GEM Report also explained that…
Goal 7: “Educational programmes, particularly non-formal and informal, can promote better energy conservation and uptake of renewable energy sources.”
Goal 11: “Education can give people the skills to participate in shaping and maintaining more sustainable cities, and to achieve resilience
in disaster situations.”
Goal 13: “Education is key to mass understanding of the impact of climate change and to adaptation and mitigation, particularly at the local level.”
Goal 15: “Education and training increase skills and capacity to underpin sustainable livelihoods and to conserve natural resources and biodiversity, particularly in threatened environments.”
These goals are being achieved thanks to YOU and others like you who support education around the world. Thank you for your ceaseless passion for Guatemalan students!