This Photo Friday we invite you to consider this simple thought from former Harvard University president Derek Bok:
“If you think education is expensive – try ignorance.”
This poster was found tucked in the corner of a classroom at one of Uganda’s up-and-coming primary schools. The school is dedicated to developing a generation of strong, independent students who are forward-thinking and globally conscious citizens.
Invisible Children has been committed to providing educational opportunities for youth and adults in northern Uganda since the organization was founded in 2005. Over the years our education programs and livelihoods initiatives have and continue to provide such opportunities for community members across the region.
During wartime, citizens often have little opportunity to consider anything beyond their basic survival needs. These include physical needs, such as food, water and shelter. Safety comes next. And as a sense of security was often challenging for many people to find during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency, further needs, like intellectual growth, remained nearly impossible to access.
By accessing education many individuals have learned to run their businesses more effectively, considered how to save money for the first time, graduated from secondary school and university, and achieved job offers they previously could never have dreamed of. Because of our programs, thousands of northern Uganda’s most vulnerable people have found a renewed chance to forgo ignorance. This is in part due to our programs, but also to the spirit of resilience and commitment to peace that characterize communities throughout northern Uganda.
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