A worldwide campaign draws attention to at-risk children and their plight.
Published on: 06-25-2019
The movie gets under your skin. It shows children living in war-zone areas and in poverty. Boys who handle weapons and haul rocks they can barely carry. Girls who are barely ten led into forced marriages. Wherever poverty and misery are present, it’s the children who suffer the most.
The ADRA relief organization, which has its German headquarters in Weiterstadt, wants to counteract these issues with projects and campaigns. Among other things, in a worldwide campaign, ADRA intends to circulate posters in Weiterstadt and surrounding area.
The film with the depressing scenes about children’s circumstances is also part of the campaign. ADRA sees this as key to a better world.
The importance of education cannot be overestimated. Education remains an important lever to bring people out of poverty.
“This is a human right and thus a children’s right,” said Christian Molke, managing director and press spokesperson of ADRA Germany.
“If all girls graduated from high school, there would be less early pregnancy, lower infant mortality, fewer child marriages, and higher incomes for women without education,” Molke explained. To provide access to education for every child in the world, it is necessary to build schools in disaster areas and in developing countries.
Every child. Everywhere. In School is the name of the current campaign that the worldwide ADRA organization has already launched in many countries of its global network to bring attention to this need.
ADRA is also concerned about vocational training and care after a disaster. The organization is currently building twelve educational institutions in Somalia alone as part of an ongoing project. ADRA, which is represented in 140 countries around the world, is also engaged in educational projects in Albania, Thailand, Serbia, and Ethiopia.
No donation account is displayed in any of the campaign posters. “But isn’t the campaign supposed to help build schools?” Molke asked. “Our projects are also funded with donations, that’s right. But first we want to create an awareness of the problems. Only when the people here realize how well off they are and what real misery in the world is, and understand that we have a lot of advantages here and opportunities to help, only then will the world be a better place.”
At ADRA, a better world begins in the mind.
“It is our mission and our long marathon, which we willingly take,” Molke said.
ADRA Germany received more than 24 million euros in 2018. The largest source of funding was the German Federal Foreign Office with 8.7 million euros, closely followed by Europe Aid, the European Commission’s cooperation office.
The original version of this story was posted in German by the ADRA Germany Echo and on the Inter-European Division news site.
Sabine Eisenmann
To bind together the Adventist people as we wait for Jesus to come back, by sharing news and information about the church plus articles on doctrine, spiritual growth and mission.
