"Investing in people, prioritising education" is the theme of the fifth edition of the International Day of Education established by the United Nations, which is celebrated today all over the world.
Educating for peace and solidarity have always been the objectives of the Community of Sant'Egidio around the world. Thus today we want to send our greetings to those who all year round teach and invest their energies in people.
Education responds to the great desire of children to learn, to a "school hunger", often denied for exclusion, poverty, urban violence, mafias, war. This is why Sant'Egidio has set up the Schools of Peace in so many places around the world. They are alternative places to abandonment and the 'school of violence' where everyone can grow up in the school of friendship, in a climate of inclusiveness and solidarity. For example in the Nyumanzi refugee camp in northern Uganda, where there has long been a school welcoming more than 1,000 children who have fled from South Sudan. The school is no longer under trees or in tents, but in twelve brickwork classrooms.There is also a library, kitchens, a warehouse, sports field, a drinking water well and other services. It’s a place where everyone can study together, regardless of nationality or ethnicity
A greeting also goes today to the students of all ages and backgrounds and their teachers in the Language and Culture Schools, places of true integration, where we build a world with no walls.
