Well done for an amazing campaign in 2016!

A massive thank you and congratulations on your amazing campaigning this year. 

With over 4,000 schools and around 400,000 young people getting involved, we’ve been able to reach 98% of MPs with important messages about the need to support education in emergencies.

July has been a particularly busy and exciting time for the campaign – starting with our day of action at the beginning of the month. This saw lots and lots of MPs visiting local schools to hear from children about education in emergencies, and to see the amazing colourful paper rucksacks they had created to symbolise the journeys made by children having to flee their homes and schools.

Like in the lovely photo above, sent in by Cardigan Primary School where 400 children took part and met their Welsh Assembly Member, Elin Jones. From whole school assemblies and starring in videos, to persuasive letter writing and hosting debates – thousands of you got involved in your own exciting ways.

On 4th July there was an important ‘Meet The Minister’ event in which young campaigners from all around the UK quizzed Nick Hurd MP, then International Development Minister, on what the government was doing to ensure a quality education for the 37 million children missing out on school in countries affected by war and disaster. They also met with their constituency MPs and handed in their paper rucksacks to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.

And if that wasn’t enough, George and Emily, our 2015 Young Ambassadors for the campaign, spoke at an an international forum on girls education. Guests at the event included Education Ministers, International Development Ministers and hundreds of youth campaigners. Emily and George took to the stage and gave a very passionate speech about how young people all around the UK are participating in Send My Friend to School. 

The young campaigners were congratulated warmly by Justine Greening MP, the then Secretary of State for International Development, who remarked that, “The best people to advocate for education for young people are young people like you… You are absolutely fantastic… We are going to continue to put education and girls education at the forefront of our [DFID’s] aid strategy.”

The Minister also made a very important announcement to give £100 million to educate 175,000 girls in the world’s poorest countries. This is in addition to the £30 million that government has pledged to the Education Cannot Wait fund to support children whose education has been disputed due to emergencies. These are fantastic results that will make a huge impact on the lives of children across the world.

Well done everyone and thank you for all your campaigning which has helped to achieve this.

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