Canada needs to do more for displaced children and youth

What an opportune time for Canada to sustain its support for children in emergencies! On the one hand, Canada has quietly and shamefully dropped the programs it led under the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries whose work for the most marginalized learners, refugees, and displaced children and youth living in emergencies. We all know there is a glaring need for just those services now with a pandemic waxing and war waning. Canada should step up by pledging $500 million over 5 years at the Global Refugee Form next month, to provide quality education to refugees, internally displaced populations, and stateless people. Children will change the world but only when they have access to their basic human rights and the skills developed through school.

Randy Rudolph, Calgary

Get More Westwind Weekly →