Australia Launches Global Education Campaign for Children

Australian Federal Youth and Sport Minister Kate Ellis on Tuesday launched a global campaign linked to the 2010 FIFA World Cup to provide education for all children.

Ellis said the 1GOAL: Education for All campaign showed how sport can bring about positive change in communities.

1GOAL is the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa, on the continent which is home to more than half the world's 75 million children who do not attend school.

"What this 1GOAL campaign demonstrates once more is the power of sport to bring about change both off the field as well as on it," Ellis said at the campaign's launch.

ActionAid Australia, part of a coalition of charities, government agencies and sports groups behind 1GOAL, said the scheme was unusual because it did not ask supporters to make monetary donations, rather it wants people to help pressure governments around the globe to give education a greater priority.

"We're hoping to get 30 million signatures demanding world leaders that they step up to the plate when it comes to education for all," ActionAid Australia CEO Archie Law said.

In 2000, 164 nations agreed on a goal of providing a free quality education to all by 2015.

Law said that since that pledge, 40 million more children now attended school.

"If we come together around this World Cup, we can do even more and reach our goal," he said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also added his voice to the campaign, pledging the support of his government in a video message posted on the 1GOAL website -- www.join1goal.org.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2009)