Global Leaders Pledge $4.5B to Send Kids to School

A coalition of governments, charities and U.N. agencies pledged $4.5 billion on Thursday in an effort to get all the world's children in school by 2015. The goal of universal primary education was first promised as a fundamental right in 1948 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the U.N.'s core documents.

Since 2000, the campaign has brought 40 million more children into schools, Brown said. Zoellick cited Cambodia, which raised its rate of enrollment in primary schools from 50 percent to over 80 percent in just five years, as a success story. The pledging conference was one of many international meetings taking place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

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Meet Our Fall Interns

The Building Fund is excited to introduce our fall interns Shaunna MacLeod and Christine Buckley. This fall our interns will be working to build our network and find funding opportunities for the community center being built at The Young Apostles International School. We look forward to having them join our team!

Shaunna MacLeod
Shaunna MacLeod is excited to join the Building Fund as a Development Intern. Shaunna graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in psychology in 2002. She moved to Chicago to take a research position with the University of Illinois at Chicago where she earned her MEd., and worked on projects focused on strengthening the literacy skills of urban children. From these experiences she understands that knowledge and access to education give children a powerful voice, and wishes to help more children find their voice by volunteering with the Building Fund.

Christine Buckley
Christine Buckley has long been interested in international development issues. After graduating Vassar College, she worked at Doctors of the World in New York City before joining the Peace Corps and serving in Morocco from 2001-2003. She is currently studying for a Master's Degree in Public Policy at Northwestern University.