Dear Editor:
I am a member of the Grandmothers Advocacy Network and I also co-chair the Education Working Group for that network.
We advocate on behalf of grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa and also on behalf of their orphaned grandchildren.
Those children are among the approximately 54 million children in the world who do not even go to school.
This week, on the North Shore and across Canada, children are heading back to school with memories of holiday festivities running through their heads. Not for a minute will they worry that their school might be taken over by a violent militia, that they might be kidnapped, or that their whole school might be obliterated in a bloody massacre.
Yet in a number of countries, this is the reality that children face as they fight for their right to education. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper has deplored the latest atrocity in Peshawar and has said that he stands by the people of Pakistan.
Actions are more important than words.
Canada must stand up for the children of Pakistan and children in all countries where school is not a safe place.
We can do this by following through on the pledge Canada made in June 2014, to contribute a minimum of $120 million to the Global Partnership for Education.
The fund supports children in developing countries, helping them attend school and get a safe education.
In honour of the Pakistani students who have died, the Nigerian students who were kidnapped, and all children unable to go to school, let's do something to change this.
Ann Frost
West Vancouver
