Royalty, intellectual heavyweights and telecom industry players shared a star-studded evening on September 21, at Grand Central Terminal in New York City to launch Connect To Learn, which aims to give children around the world access to quality secondary education.
The initiative is a collaborative effort from Millennium Promise, the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Ericsson. Madonna is the global spokesperson for the project. Though she wasn't present, she was featured on video and via her philanthropy representative, Philippe van den Bossche.
"If you can empower a woman and give her an education," said van den Bossche, "you can affect the entire next generation because you're affecting the way her children see the world."
Queen Rania of Jordan also attended the event, as did Princess Madeleine of Sweden. Speakers included Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg; Graça Machel of the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group and former first lady of South Africa and Mozambique; and Millennium Promise CEO John McArthur.
"We're launching this initiative through the best of science, implementation, and the best of connectivity to make sure every child has the transformational opportunity to get to secondary school, complete secondary school and then move on to live the most productive and enhanced life possible," McArthur says.
It was busy and noisy amid the high ceilings and marble floors until Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises, silenced the crowd. "Three minutes is what I ask of you," he said. Then he told them that 280 million children in India may never go to school without their involvement.
"We have 10 years. It's not a long time, and the only way to do this is through broadband mobile connectivity." The crowd of more than 400 people gave him a hearty round of applause.
Van den Bossche agreed that mobile technology effects important changes. "Having mobile technology improves healthcare in a village, improves education," he said. "Madonna is very impressed with, and supports the work that Ericsson does so that every child can have access to this technology to improve their lives."
While Connect To Learn's long-term objective concerns secondary education, its immediate goal is to secure 100 scholarships for girls in Africa in the next 100 days.
The music of Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, a member of the Broadband Commission, rounded off the evening.
