Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker (second left), sheds light on the Educate A Child programme at a press conference in New York City.
NEW YORK/DOHA: Qatar Airways and Jazz at Lincoln Center have become the new worldwide partners of the Educate A Child (EAC) initiative, that aims to ensure every child in the world access to quality education.
Qatar Airways and Jazz at Lincoln Center will both serve as partners to raise awareness about the EAC programme and its objectives.
This global partnership was launched at a dinner reception at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Thursday which was attended by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, among other dignitaries.
The dinner was followed by an evening of world-class music, featuring a performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis with special guest Chick Corea.
Launched by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in November last year, Educate A Child addresses the plight of 61 million out-of-school children around the world, who are denied access to quality primary education. Educate A Child has partnered with numerous NGOs and other organisations to seek out new and innovative ways of providing education.
In the past six months alone, the initiative has given 600,000 children the opportunity to fulfil their right to primary education, which would otherwise have been denied to them because of poverty, discrimination or conflict.
Educate A Child was founded as a direct result of H H Sheikha Moza’s mandate as a Unesco Special Envoy on Basic and Higher Education, a United Nations Millennium Development Goal Advocate and a Steering Committee member of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Global Education First initiative.
Flying to over 125 destinations around the world, Qatar Airways has pledged to provide food, cargo, and personal transport services for the programme as well as promoting awareness of EAC and the plight of the 61m out-of-school children in the world through its in-flight communications channels.
Speaking in New York at a press conference earlier, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “We believe that global aviation can bridge communities and people to galvanise support for causes that affect individuals across every continent.
“Qatar Airways is proud to partner with an initiative that matches our spirit and ambition as an organisation.
Qatar Airways will use its communication platforms to reach the airline’s global passenger base, showcasing the initiative through in-flight entertainment, in-flight magazines and the carrier’s web site qatarairways.com and social media channels.
The press conference was attended by several prominent personalities associated with Educate A Child, including Dr Tidu Maini, Special Envoy – Educate A Child — Office of HH Sheikha Moza and Executive Committee member at the Qatar Foundation Endowment, Marcio Barbosa, CEO of Education Above All, Mohammed Al Naimi, executive committee member of Education Above All Foundation, and Robert Appel, Center Chairman of the Board, Jazz at Lincoln. The Peninsula
