During March, we focus on MDG #2: Achieve universal primary education.  This goal is to ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.  

Education is fundamental to improving quality of life.  People who have received a basic education are much better equipped to combat poverty and to improve their health conditions.  Moreover, education is considered a human right -- a basic standard without which people cannot live in dignity.  Yet worldwide, 75 million children and 774 million adults lack sufficient access to education.  Many of these people are girls or women to whom education is denied.  Others must support their families, lack necessary school fees, or live in communities uprooted by war or famine.

What can you do to start working toward this goal?

• Learn: visit www.campaignforeducation.org to learn more about international education opportunities.
• Donate: contribute to the Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools to help ensure equal educational opportunities for all children in our county.
• Serve: contact VITAL (Volunteers in Tutoring Adult Learners) at the Monroe County Public Library to help teach basic reading skills to adults.

The eight MDG’s are:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental stability
• Develop a global partnership for development