In this article for the World Post (a collaboration of the Huffington Post and Berggruen Institute), UK’s former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, explains the danger of child trafficking that has followed the earthquake in Nepal. Gordon describes the current measures being taken in Nepal to help prevent the trafficking of children in the aftermath of this disaster, including efforts made to rebuild classrooms and get children back in schools. “Preventing child abuse and getting children back into schools are two sides of the same coin of child protection,” says Brown.
Brown notes the strides that Nepal has made in recent years to achieve Universal Education, and the recent setbacks in education that have occurred due to the earthquake. “All of this makes the case for the international community to set up a humanitarian fund for education in emergencies,” says Brown. “We must be able to move quickly, ready to make grants, making a return to school happen quickly and preventing the instances of the exploitation of children.” Brown urges the international community to discuss a proposed humanitarian fund for education in emergencies at the the World Education Forum in Korea and the Oslo Summit on Education and Development in July.