Vienna, October 10, 2024 (KAP) Education opens up the chance for a better future and enables girls and young women in particular to live a self-determined life without poverty: this is emphasized by the development organization “Jugend Eine Welt” on the occasion of International Day of the Girl on Friday (October 11th). Girls in particular are often affected by discrimination and disadvantage when it comes to access to education, explains “Jugend Eine Welt” managing director Reinhard Heiserer: “A girl who grows up in a poor household may be married at a young age, have to leave school early, becomes a ‘teenage mother’ and experiences oppression and violence in the relationship.”
Heiserer refers to research results by demographer Wolfgang Lutz, founding director of the Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital, who was recently awarded the Yidan Prize, the world’s most valuable education prize. The focus of Lutz’s study “Education: Key to sustainable development worldwide”, which “Jugend Eine Welt” published in German in 2022, is the education factor. This is crucial against poverty and hunger, leads to better health and longer lifespan and promotes the ability to adapt to climate change.
“Education decides the future of humanity,” is the conclusion of the aid organization, which says it has been working on education and training projects for disadvantaged girls in the Global South for 27 years. “Good education and training are not only crucial for each individual girl, but also benefit her future family and society as a whole,” said Heiserer. (Youth One World website: www.jugendeinewelt.at)
