Education

Education is foundational in determining a child's quality of life. But it isn't just the child's education that matters. Uneducated adults have a hard time finding jobs, and without jobs they can't feed their children. And when adults can't feed their children, they become vulnerable to abuse and neglect, child labor, trafficking and homelessness. Many childrenend up living in an institution where they receive two meals and a bed, but have little hope for their future. Some end up alone or on the streets.

One of Buckner's biggest goals is to preserve families and reduce the number of children living without parents, in institutions or on the streets. We believe that by educating children and their parents, we can keep families united and improve opportunities for living a healthy, happy and purposeful life. Today's children are tomorrow's leaders.

Education and Women:
Women's circumstances in this life are often very different than those of men. Women do 60 percent of the world's work and only earn 10 percent of the world's income. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of those living with HIV are women. And in Southern Asia and Africa, 80 percent of the jobs held by women are unpaid.

In total, women comprise 70 percent of the world's 1.3 billion poor living on less than $1/day and unfortunately, they account for 75 percent of the civilians killed in war along with their children.

On a more positive note, when a woman earns income, she reinvests 90 percent of it into her family, as compared to only 30-40 percent for a man.

When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children. An extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school, it grows to 15 to 25 percent.

If we want to preserve the family and reduce number of orphans in the world, we must help our mothers. Critical issues such as poverty, diseases like HIV/AIDS, trafficking, lack of education, abuse, lack of jobs skills – all of these things disproportionately impact single mothers. By preserving the family and helping a mother, we can generationally dissolve the overwhelming number of children we now call orphans.

Global Education Crisis:
The future of our world depends on our children. There are currently 121 million children worldwide who are uneducated. These children either aren't allowed to attend school due to their gender, lack of shoes, clothing, or resources – or come from an uneducated or low-income household where parents need their children to earn income for the family.

It's estimated that 150 million children ages 5-14 worldwide are engaged in child labor. And yet, for each year a child attends school, their salary as an adult can increase by an average of 10 percent.

If a child has an education they can:
• Earn a living
• Communicate properly
• Are less likely to be victimized
• Are more likely to be healthy

U.S. Education Crisis:
Each year approximately 1.2 million U.S. students fail to graduate from high school; more than half of these students are minority groups in low-income areas. Without a high school degree, it is less likely for a person to have a stable job or a successful future. When children drop out of school it can significantly affect the economic and social standards of the United States' future.