Ex-PM Julia Gillard Takes New Role as ‘Mother’ to Poor Children Worldwide
Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard whose claim to being the first woman prime minister of Australia was her misogyny speech, now took another advocacy as she take new role as a 'mother' to the world's poorest children.
Ms Gillard was chosen to head The Global Partnership for Education to get the poorest child into school. The organisation is helping 60 developing countries as it raise funds from donor governments, international organisations, private sector and civil society group.
Ms Gillard will spearhead fundraising to help more than 50 million children worldwide to achieve their rights to education - a task which can be a work in a park for Ms Gillard as she had already served as education minister prior her job as prime minister.
Ms Gillard said that there is no nobler job than to help children gain access to education.
"I am delighted to take on this new role with the Global Partnership for Education. I believe that with 57 million of the world's children still lacking access to a basic education and 250 million children unable to read, write or master simple math, there can be no higher priority," Ms Gillard said in a statement.
"I am also alarmed about the recent sharp decline in donor support to education that threatens the progress achieved over the past decade, particularly for girls' education.The global community must respond generously to the upcoming call for a renewal of multilateral, bilateral and national financing for basic education."
As for chief executive of Global Partnerships and former JPMorgan senior banker Alice Albright, Ms Gillard is the right person for the job for she is " one of the world's most articulate and effective advocates for improving access and quality of education for children in the poorest countries".
"As chairwoman, Ms Gillard would lead a board of directors representing 18 different constituencies from developing country governments, donors, civil society organisations, private sector and foundations, and multilateral agencies and regional banks," Ms Albright said.
According to the organisation's Web site:
"In the last 10 years, we have grown from seven to close to 60 partner countries, mobilised more than $3.6 billion to improve access and quality to education.[We] helped nearly 22 million children go to school for the first time, supported the construction of over 52,000 classrooms, and trained over 300,000 teachers."