 Buddies return to U.S. and plan for MDG+5 Summit The buddies are not about to let world leaders forget the importance of access to education. They have crossed oceans and continents lobbying for the right to go to school and now, fresh off a vigorous campaign at the G8 Summit, they are converging on New York. With tens of thousands of buddies scheduled to arrive over the next few weeks, they will be hard to ignore. They will come bearing a simple but powerful message for world leaders: five years ago you made a pledge to give all children the chance to go to school—now keep it! “This isn’t about every man or woman or community or country for itself,” said Abena, a buddy from Guinea, where less than half of children go to school. “This is about a global pledge, and so long as children in any corner of the world do not have the chance to go to school, every country will be held responsible.” The pledge was part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of goals agreed upon by world leaders to dramatically reduce global poverty. From September 14-16, five years after the MDGs were established, leaders of 191 countries will come to New York to discuss whether they are on track to meet them. The buddies are pulling out all the stops to make their voices heard. On September 13, the day before the MDG+5 Summit, thousands of them will crisscross NYC in yellow school buses, stopping at iconic sites such as the Empire State Building and the New York Public Library. The buddies will be accompanied by young people from around the world who participated in the "Send My Friend to School" campaign, including several leaders of the NetAid Global Citizen Corps. They will wind up their tour at the UN, where the buddies will be received by Ms. Nane Annan, wife of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Buddies who do not have the chance to go to school are arriving from all over. Pedro, an eight year-old buddy from El Salvador who harvests sugarcane while other kids go to school, was seen crossing the Brookyln Bridge on horseback. Duma, a Nepalese buddy who should be in second grade, has to take care of her younger siblings instead of getting an education. (Check out Duma above as she poses in front of the Empire State Building.) At the end of their long journeys, Pedro and Duma met at the NetAid office, which buddies are once again transforming into their headquarters. Keep checking the blog to stay up to date on the buddies’ plans for the MDG+5 summit. Read the first entry of the BuddyBlog, Buddies Arrive at Netaid, and see where the buddies started their global campaign.
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