Living Sunday is a young South Sudanese woman, aged 22, who could lend her face to the Mattei Plan, which we confidently await to see launched.
We met Living Sunday in Juba, where she was the protagonist of an education project, in particular to recover the scholastic path interrupted due to the critical situation in her country: she seized the opportunity of this project, and is determined to resume his life, to find a job. All the effort she puts in, combining waking up at 4, taking care of her child, various tasks, doesn’t weigh on her because she has one issue clear: “Only if you receive an education – she explained – are you recognized for your value”. Recognized by yourself too, not just by others. This is the factor that makes education the first condition for any development: when the person is educated, that is, accompanied to discover their own infinite value, they manage to make use of all their resources and abilities, take control of their own life and become protagonist of development for herself, for her people, for the network around her, her community. It’s an overwhelming effect.
Therefore, education is the cornerstone around which every intervention for development is built because, while it makes the person aware of their value, it opens them up to knowledge, to the ability to get involved. Education and development always pass through a personal relationship that is generative of free, responsible, open people.
This is the education and development we work towards, aware that the fate of Living Sunday and her son, who live in South Sudan, is closely connected to ours. To be even more explicit: the educational investment for Living Sunday is closely linked to that for my children here in Italy.
We face crises and challenges that affect us all equally: migrations that divide us, the climate crisis, wars that become chronic, inequality that grows. They are never “private” issues of some countries, and cannot be addressed in a partial or partisan way. History has harshly demonstrated this to us now.
This is why we must change the categories with which we think about the relationship between our countries. There is no longer a North helping a South, but only different countries working together for common development: it is this certainty that must fuel the commitment to access quality education at all latitudes. There is no development – long-lasting, sustainable, authentic – if it is not designed and promoted for everyone.
To this end we need to create the conditions that make it possible to educate always and everywhere, to educate in self-recognition, in critical thinking, which allows the construction of vital, welcoming communities, capable of investing resources in autonomy and growth.
Now we have a great chance: the Mattei Plan, an ambitious plan that Italy is about to launch to encourage a new partnership for development between our country and African countries. If it helps us change the way we think about international cooperation and address the issue of development as a challenge common to all of us, on the two shores of the Mediterranean, on equal terms, it could truly mark a decisive turning point in relations between Europe and Africa.
For this reason we hope that this plan will find its cornerstone in education and professional training, from which new projects can then arise. We work so that the Mattei Plan, in promoting an equal partnership between our countries, chooses as a priority the support of educational realities for children and young people who can one day enter the world of work according to their abilities and possibilities.
Formal education up to high levels, together with vocational and post-secondary training designed in relation to the local and global market in the agriculture and energy sectors (to name just two of the most important), will ensure that all our countries the possibility of enhancing human capital. To create work where there is none, so that young people can freely choose whether to stay in their country or leave, and to promote reception and job placement where there is a job offer in a governed way that respects human rights .
We are not starting from scratch: there are successful education, professional training and job creation programs that can be enhanced and reproduced and can trigger virtuous development processes. Let’s relaunch and multiply what is already in place and has a good impact. Let’s start by looking at our children and the future we want for them.
Source: corriere.it
