Educating Disadvantaged Children: Why Your Involvement Matters

The graphic above illustrates a point that will resonate with most of us – that education of dispossessed, disadvantaged or distressed children is a high priority. Not to overuse a cliche, they are indeed our collective future, and if not given the opportunity to be educated, they could be our collective burden.

One of these children could become a pioneer in discovering a valuable cure, breaking the limits in space exploration, or diving deep into nanotechnology to change the world of the future. We don’t know who that child will be. We do know, however, that that child could not do any one of these things if we hold back from him or her the opportunity to grow and blossom by withholding the means to grow and blossom.

Never mind the children represented by this graphic are Palestinians. Intelligence, creativity, ambition, passion, and the drive to do better are not confined by borders or boundaries, nor by race or religion. Let’s think of them as our own hopes for the future, our own dreams to be fulfilled.

By now you know that the graphic above represents the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). You also know that the United States government under the current leadership is withholding over half of its sizable financial contribution to UNRWA, with consequences detrimental to the promise of education for disadvantaged Palestinian children. Over half of UNRWA’s funding is dedicated to children’s education.

Why is it even thinkable that the US will withhold about $65m out of a $125m aid package – a small piece of all the financial aid that the U.S. gives out. Leaving politics aside, this happens because the American public is not fully aware of what UNRWA does and, in a wider sense, why the UN’s work  is crucial for America’s well being. 

We can help to change that.

The United Nations Association of the United States and its oldest and largest chapter, the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA) have made it their mission to educate the American public about the work of the United Nations and what we as citizens can do to help achieve United Nations’ goals, as well as the crucial work that UN agencies such as UNRWA do.

Let’s do our part.

Please visit www.unanca.org. Read about issues that matter and how you can become involved in helping renew the strength of America’s commitment to United Nation and all its agencies, including UNRWA, You will be inspired to join and help – and I hope you will join UNA-NCA with family and friends. How about persuading at least five persons to become UNA-NCA members with its reasonable membership fee, and also at least five students under 25 years of age whose fees are waived, in the next two weeks?

I thank you for your understanding and your support. 

Wassalaam.

Iqbal Unus

Director-at-Large

United Nations Association of the National Capital Area

www.unanca.org