NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Education Cannot Wait (ECW) on Thursday allocated 1 million U.S. dollars in response to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Mozambique, said the global fund dedicated to education in emergencies and protracted crises.
The allocation will benefit displaced children and youth impacted by increasing violence in Cabo Delgado province. Ongoing violence and insecurity have displaced more than half a million people, including 250,000 children in just the past few years, said the ECW in a press release.
The COVID-19 pandemic makes matters even worse, straining education, health and financial systems, and forcing crisis-affected children even further to the margins, it said.
There has also been a rise in attacks on schools in Mozambique. Between 2017 and 2020, 171 schools were affected by school attacks and 45 schools were destroyed. This affected close to 75,000 students and 1,500 teachers. Even more concerning were the killings of six teachers over this same time period, said the fund.
"Without access to safe and protective learning environments in such a volatile environment, girls face the risk of sexual abuse, early pregnancy and child marriage, while boys may be recruited into armed groups or forced out of school into child labor," said ECW Director Yasmine Sherif.
The new 12-month grant builds on the ECW's COVID-19 response and cyclone relief grants, which have already benefited hundreds of thousands of children in Mozambique, said the ECW.
Planned interventions will build age-appropriate educational opportunities for crisis-affected girls and boys, support safe and inclusive learning spaces, expand remote learning options, provide children with learning materials, train teachers, and raise awareness to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, including psychosocial support.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, water and sanitation services will be built at schools and learning centers, it said.
The ECW called on donors to fully fund the education funding gap of 4.2 million dollars within Mozambique's humanitarian response plan. Enditem
