In the News

UN Secretary-General Tells Malawi Students: “Education is the foundation. You are the leaders of the next generation.”

Visiting the Millennium Village of Mwandama in Malawi on May 30th, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spent time with students and teachers at Dindi School, telling them, “I’m very impressed by visiting this Dindi school. Education is the foundation, education is the basis of your future, and the future of your country, and the future of your society, and of Mwandama. You can make yourself leader of your community, leader of your country, and study hard!”

The Secretary-General was joined by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, his Special Advisor on the MDGs. Professor Sachs is also Director of Earth Institute, and a founding partner of the Connect To Learn global education initiative. On this tour, the Secretary-General witnessed the significant progress that the country and local communities are making toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Though many countries in Africa continue to lag behind, he expressed optimism that the Millennium Development Goals could still be attained through practical initiatives backed by stronger international cooperation.

Millennium Development Goal 2 aims to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. Significant progress has been made since 2000, but not enough. Connect To Learn’s mission is to support this goal through the promise of access to secondary school once primary school has been completed, and through the use of ICT to improve the quality of overall education in even the most remote villages.

“We are working very hard to bring prosperity and to educate the whole young people," said the Secretary-General, "Because we believe you are the leaders of the next generation, and this world is yours, and study hard!”

Mr. Ban's visit, the first by a sitting UN Secretary-General to a Millennium Village, coincides with the publication of “Harvests of Development in Africa: The Millennium Villages After Three Years,” the first in a series of reports presenting early data on the significant progress toward the MDGs achieved in rural Millennium Village sites throughout Africa.  For the full story, visit www.millenniumpromise.org

.