[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 9 (Wednesday, February 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H337-H338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EDUCATING THE WORLD'S CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of 
months, or at least almost 2 months, we have been listening to the very 
sad stories that have come out of the tsunami region. Those of us who 
have had

[[Page H338]]

the opportunity to visit that region recognize that there are no words 
to describe the devastation experienced both in terms of physical 
structures but also in terms of the emotional loss.
  However, as I visited Sri Lanka, let me appreciate and acknowledge 
the wonderful spirit of the Sri Lankan people as well as those in the 
other devastated regions who realize there is still hope. But also let 
me say to the American people that one disaster stood out more than 
others. And when I say ``disaster,'' one impact of the disaster stood 
out more than others and that is the impact on children.
  First of all, it is important to note that the largest number of 
victims for the tsunami disaster were children in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, 
India, Thailand and Somalia and other places. Waves 15 feet and more 
swept away thousands of children, and whole generations have now been 
lost. When teachers returned to schools in Sri Lanka, one teacher 
acknowledged that she had lost her four children. They had been swept 
away. A classroom that had previously held 30 students now held six.
  I rise today to raise the consciousness of the world on the plight of 
the world's children, not America's children but the world's children. 
We find out that in the world we now have still large numbers of those 
children who are either forced into being child soldiers, children who 
are forced into child slavery, children who are forced into sexual 
trafficking. Children have been abused, and we have not responded to 
the call.
  Let me thank organizations like UNICEF and Save the Children and 
other world-focused organizations who focus on the needs of children, 
but I would say that the need is greater than we have responded to. It 
is time now for a Marshall Plan that deals with the education of the 
world's children. It is time for us to raise an outcry, an outrageous 
outcry, to demand the cessation of using children in child labor camps, 
in sexual trafficking and as child soldiers.
  It was noted that, in the tsunami disaster, rebel groups are 
beginning to recruit orphan children in Sri Lanka and Indonesia to 
engage in rebel fighting, innocent children who before the tsunami had 
mothers and fathers and grandparents, children who had restful places 
to sleep and places to play and to be children. It is well known of the 
terrible tragedy of children in many parts of South America and 
particularly Brazil, but it is not well known that if we took a mere $8 
billion we could guarantee a primary education for every child in the 
world.
  Mr. Speaker, I am calling upon this Congress, and I will be working 
with the Congressional Children's Caucus which I am a cochair of. We 
will take on as our issue a Marshall Plan for educating the world's 
children, a Marshall Plan that will demand of the world, demand of the 
United Nations, demand of nations both free and unfree that their 
children must come first.
  We must minimally provide for a primary education for the world's 
children. What kind of world are we to say that we sit idly by to allow 
our children, orphaned or not, to be sexually abused, to be lacking in 
education, to have no homes to go to, to be used in human trafficking, 
to be sexual slaves and as well child slaves and to be used in war. I 
believe that we will not as a collective world force, as a family of 
humanity, be able to stand up and acknowledge our own humanness by 
sending to the worst plight our children in this world. There should be 
an outcry. A mere $8 billion can promise the primary education of all 
of the world's children.
  It will be the challenge of the Congressional Children's Caucus to 
hold hearings on this issue. I invite Save the Children, UNICEF, other 
United Nations NGOs, world NGOs to join us, celebrities and others, to 
join us and put our collective effort behind the idea of really saving 
the world's children. It is a big task, but it can be done. We can 
spend $80 billion and more in a supplemental to help the military in 
Iraq. We can minimally provide $8 billion that will guarantee every 
single child in the world today a primary education.
  Mr. Speaker, the challenge is enormous, but in seeing the devastation 
in the tsunami region I cannot imagine that we can minimally provide 
for the children of the world.

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