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Ani -Hello I’m Austen Emerson this is CNN news now, today one of the most concerning problems
alongside global warming, poverty water food scarcity stands a core problem lack of education. Despite
the constant increase in literacy rates there are still over 773 million people who are illiterate. In
Africa( the poorest continent ) 60% of teenagers is out of schools. Without taking immediate action this
will get worse. So let’s see how the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals including the concept of Global
citizenship are going to help us solve these undeniable issues. Our first guest is Maverick Girgorian the
owner of a recently opened a private military school in Armenia.

Ani-Hi Mr. Grigorian It’s a pleasure having you here you , so why did you decide to open up a military
school why exactly military?

Mavrick- My school's goal is to make a strong ,smart and skilful individuals from
armenian children.The main reason that this thought came across my mind is the
situation in my country. Everybody knows that if you live in Armenia you should be
ready for a war every second. Our school gives it's students knowledge that will help
them to survive in almost every situation. Besides it also helps them to acquire strong
mentality so they will be able to keep calmness in the worst situations. This schools
mission is to build loving caring soldiers who will be happy to give their lives up for the
safety of their country, for the peace of their families.

Ani-Dont you think that teaching them being a global citizen will help them understand the importance
of stopping wars, so someday there is no need for military schools

Maverick- No , I don't think so. The concept of Global citizenship is that everybody should have
the same goal of making the world a better place to live .The military school's Idea is that you
should become better to have privileges over your enemy, to not let them attack your homeland
disrespectfully torture your relatives, friends. You can't have both ideas in your mind . During the
war you need to do everything you can to kill your enemy and I don't think there is anyone who
would say that killing can make the world better.

Ani- But don’t you think that if help them to see the grater picture they will form a new perspective and
set their goal not only to make peace for your own country but for the whole world.

Maverick- I think that's the worst goal they could have on their mind. During war you should think
about the worst thing that can happen, so you can be ready when it happens. Peace is a great
thing ,but making them think about peace will make them forget about war , so when it's the war
they will not be able to protect themselves and their friends.

Ani()- well, Thank you for sharing your experience and ideas with us today.
Right now my friend Jonathan Smith will join explain the educational problems of the world and
especially in Africa . Hi Joe… pause….

Hayk(Jonathan Smith)-….Hi Ani, so during my trip around Africa I finally realized how bad actually the
global issues, that we talk about every day around the world, are expressed. Global warming water
scarcity food scarcity , but the scariest thing is that peple don’t even understand the greatness of the
problem and the reason is they are not properly educated, The

lack of school environment and teachers deprives over 38 million kids from getting the education they

need. There might be some public schools in large cities, but there is a huge lack of them in other cities

or villages. Many kids need to travel long distances for reaching the school and quite many of them give

up and remain illiterate and ignorant. Some of them, who are the most dedicated ones, sometimes after

getting to school meet nothing but disappointment. Even in schools there are no qualified teachers who

can give their knowledge to children. Sometimes the number of schools is not the problem. For example

in Nigeria, there are lots of public school, where they have a shortage of textbooks, teachers, and places

for large numbers of students.

Right now I’m am in Madagascar one of the poorest countries in

Africa. It is a home to 25 million people and has a very poor economic growth. In a country where you

fight for living, education is not one of your primary concerns. A UN report showed that average adult in

Madagascar had only 4.5 years of education. There are even more obstacles for girls, because of the

poor sanitation and undersupply of clean water.

This is a huge problem, I mean just looking at this people makes me feel guilty for knowing how to write
and read, they are like an isolated society no information about outside world at all.

This would be an infinite cycle if there were no help from other countries: adults would be illiterate and

because of their lack of knowledge the country would not develop so the educational system also

wouldn’t advance and so on. But, of course, this would not go unseen by todays world. Today the

country already launched Sector Education plan, which improves the education in first two grades and

offers more trainings for teachers. This is only possible with the partnership of the government and

organizations like The World Bank Group or Global Partnership for Education.
UN’s Sustainable development goals are drawing a path to a whole new future for our planet and

global citizens people who care, people who act, people who believe can make a difference.That’s
something I personally believe in.

Ani- Thank you Joe, now actually our next guest Linet Martinez an incredibly brave
global citizen and a great singer songwriter, whose charity concerts actually made a
difference and have been a huge help for people in Africa. Welcome Linet would you
like to share with us your experience today, what is it like to be a global citizen to be
dedicated to making the world a better place to live?

Linet- Thank you for having me. Actually the first time I had the idea for a charity concert
was back in 2014, when I saw people, especially little kids standing outside the stadium
just to hear the songs live. Another one of our inspirations was The Freddie Mercury
Tribute Concert For AIDS Awareness at Wembley Stadium in London in 1992. When
Queen singer Freddie Mercury died from complications arising from a long battle with
AIDS, his bandmates quickly decided the best way of honoring him would be with a
concert to raise money for AIDS research. After all music is something bringing people
together, some people find themselves in certain songs, some people travel through the
world to hear their favorite song live. After that we had a talk with the management and
decided to do a world tour, raising money for people in need, especially for educational
purposes because education can create many opportunities later in life. So every cent
people paid for our concert tickets went to our charity project. And I think it just feels
great feeling like you’ve helped someone, even if you don’t know who they are. I had an
interview with a fan after one of our concerts in Manchester, which was actually one of
our best, and the fan told me how marvelous she was feeling after the concert, knowing
that she not only had a great time at the concert, but also helped someone somewhere
in the world struggling. I mean if you look at it this way, we all are just humans, living
and sharing the same planet, the same resources and if we don’t take care of each
other, who will? Anyway, back to our charity concerts. We started the tour late spring
2015, and it lasted almost a year and a half, with some little breaks in between. It was
basically the same tour we do every time, but now we had little charity boxes around
every corner of the stadiums, we had some talks with our fans about this whole
situation, sometimes even invited special guests to expand our audience and everyone
seemed to love it. Even though setting this whole thing up was a huge headache, we
were successful in the end.

Ani- Oh wonderful, I hear some huge organizations were inspired and made investment,
even created their on projects to help creating schools for children in Africa?

Linet- Yes that’s right I am proud to say that UNESCO heard our voice and now they
started a project a mission I may say schools for Madagascar, it is fascinating to even
think about how much help those people are getting.

Ani- Thank you Linet it was nice having you here, it’s great that there a people like you
young minds willing to dedicate their life to the bright future of this planet. And our last
guest Amanda Johnson, she was inspired by the charity events that Linet Martinez
organized and by the successful outcome they had. Hi Mrs. Johnson would you like to
share with us how UNESCO deals with these problems and tell us about the Schools for
Madagascar project……

Nane- First of all I wanna say a massive thank you to all of you making this possible and
Linet Martinez and her band for creating this great community. One sunny day I was
scrolling through social media and I came across a video of one of their concerts. It was
basically a Timelapse of one of the charity boxes slowly filling up during the concert. It
was so heartwarming seeing people help from all around the world. It gave me hope
that maybe one day the whole world could be brought together with little steps like this.
And I was eager to find out what this was all about. When I found out about the project
Linet was doing it inspired me a lot and I was determined to find a way to help them or
cooperate with them and take this journey with them. After contacting Linet and having
a nice little chat, We came to an agreement. As she said already having a limited
budget for a whole concert is very difficult, after all you need security and other staff for
the whole thing. We basically helped them a bit with their budget and after the whole
tour we came up with different locations and destinations for our journey. A journey that
changed a lot of lives including mine. Seeing countries in that circumstances, seeing the
conditions people live in was truly heartbreaking and made us appreciate all we have.
To sum up their whole plan, it was to help kids with educational needs. And it appears
that we have a project just like that one. 
UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Hamburg Society for the Promotion
of Democracy and International Law started the “Schools for Africa” initiative in 2004 to
ensure that every child in Africa has an opportunity for education that leads to a safer
and happier future. Nelson Mandela’s vision that education can transform the lives of
people and entire communities is the foundation of global efforts to provide better
opportunities for African children.
The mission to provide access to quality education for the most vulnerable children in
Africa has united the world – so far, 27 countries have collected more than USD 300
million and have thus given the opportunity for education to over 30 million girls and
boys in 21 African countries!  
In a community full of good will, humanity and faith in change, children and young
people learn about children’s rights, unequal opportunities and international solidarity,
and help to create better living conditions for children in Africa.
The money collected has been used to build a number of new schools and renew
existing ones, ensure access to clean drinking water and sanitary facilities for children,
build school playgrounds, and equip classrooms with the necessary educational
materials, school desks and chairs. Early education centres for the youngest children
have also been opened, and children who have left school or were forced to work have
been given the chance to attend alternative education centres.

Ani – Thank you very much Amanda, this sounds very hopefull, and I truly think that
with the help of all these people we are going to see some great progress. That’s
today’s New’s now, stay tuned for sports new’s now.