“How to use Education as a tool to Eradicate Poverty” Webinar

On Wednesday July 7th 2021, Charity Donation Foundation hosted an online Webinar titled “Using Education as a Tool to Eradicate Poverty”. This was one of the many online webinars that Charity Donation Foundation is launching as part of the 2021 vision, which is to tackle specific topics with professionals in order to enlighten its members and raise awareness regarding these topics. Research Intern Rita Halwani hosted the webinar alongside guest speaker Dr. Ahmad Jammal, the previous General Director of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Lebanon, as Dr. Jammal gave great insights on the importance and the impact basic education has on poverty rates, as well as from his own personal experience at the Ministry.

Dr. Jammal started out the webinar by defining poverty, and later he moved on to discussing the benefits of education in combating poverty since education improves GDP per capita, and it increases life expectancy since people who have basic education tend to make healthier life choices. Dr. Jammal also stated in his presentation that “According to studies carried out by UNESCO, if all adults completed their high school education, they could reduce the percentage of world poverty by more than 50%”. Dr. Jammal also highlighted the importance of educating women in society and he supported his statement by saying that “According to UNESCO, children who are born to educated mothers are 50% more likely to live past the age of 5.” In a country like Lebanon, where natural resources like petroleum and gas are not present, the most important resource we possess is the human resource and therefore we should capitalize and invest in the improvement of our human resources and this is done by providing the Lebanese with skills such as critical and innovative thinking, as well as we should strive to eradicate technological illiteracy.

The webinar was a great success as it highlighted the importance of education in eradicating poverty, and it is all thanks to Dr. Ahmad Jammal who presented the topic perfectly and made it very interesting to the audience.