Education in Emergencies: EU announces record humanitarian funding for 2019 and launches #RaiseYourPencil Campaign

The European Commission has announced today an unprecedented €164 million for Education in Emergencies projects in 2019. Together with international and Belgian celebrities as well as around 400 students, the Commission has launched a social media campaign to raise awareness and solidarity among young Europeans.
 

#School4All event

Commissioner Christos Stylianides announced the new funding today at the #School4All High-Level-Event on Education in Emergencies in Brussels. This event gathered over 400 high-school students, teachers, policy makers and humanitarian aid practitioners, together with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege and the Belgian singers Axelle Red and Typh Barrow.

#RaiseYourPencil campaign

To raise awareness about the need to guarantee access to education for all crisis-affected girls and boys worldwide, the #RaiseYourPencil campaign was launched today to encourage young Europeans to express solidarity with their peers around the world who cannot go to school because of emergencies. The campaign will run until September 2019 and will cover both the times when young students across European countries finish their school year and when they return to school after the summer break. Using the pencil, a universal symbol for school and learning, the Commission encourages everyone to #RaiseYourPencil on social media to promote #School4All.