FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The World Education Council: Changing the world, one mind at a time.

Geneva, Switzerland- January, 2010

Our world today faces many challenges of crisis proportion, with an alarming human cost.

At any given moment, 963 million people around the world are hungry. In fact, every day, 25,000 people die from hunger-related causes. Every six seconds, that person is a child.

Two-and-a-half billion people around the world do not have access to adequate sanitation and 884 million people do not have access to clean water.

Across seven continents, with six billion people, there is one vital need: Education.

That’s right, education. Education is an avenue toward better health and well-being, productive and sustainable livelihoods, a greater understanding of the world around us and a hope for future generations.

The World Education Council believes that the power of education is the power to change the planet. Launched in the fall of 2009 as a not-for-profit partnership of organisations and individuals, the World Education Council is dedicated to assembling the knowledge capital, the resources, and the technology to enable any person, anywhere, to reap the benefits of education.

The World Education Council has attracted its members from the highest echelons of academia, the scientific community, governments and industry. It is not a government organisation and has no political or ideological affiliation. The W.E.C. is a Geneva-based organisation recognized by the Global Development Network and the World Bank.

“A lack of education keeps us in a downward spiral of poverty and social problems such as hunger and disease,” said Laura Lewis, president of the World Education Council. “When individuals have the chance to learn basic life and literacy skills, economies grow faster and poverty rates decline.”

According to the Global Campaign for Education, seven million cases of HIV/AIDS could be prevented in the next decade if every child received an education. In addition, a child born to a literate mother is 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of five.

Even in more developed cultures, the power of information and education can have a profound effect on the quality of life.

“When one person in a corporation is educated on the critical need for sustainability measures and in response works to implement programs to decrease that company’s carbon footprint, the planet is positively impacted,” Lewis added. “Education is key to a better world.”

The World Education Council’s primary objective is to establish the highest certification criteria in the sustainability and educational arenas, thereby setting the premier standards in global online education.

The World Education Council is the brainchild of founder Stephen Gatlin, a pioneer in the realm of online training and online education. Additional founding members include John Nash of the World Bank; Richard Hodges founder of GreenIT; Joel Makower chairman of Greener World Media and creator of  Greenbiz.com; Charles Senkondo of the Tanzania Global Development Learning Centre (TGDLC); Pisin Chen of Stanford University; David Simmonds of the University of Westminster in London; David Sklar founder and developer of Star Island, the premier carbon neutral resort island set to open later this year in the Bahamas; Tom Colvin of MCR Capital; and Laura Lewis of Laura Lewis Enterprises, LLC.

“We’ll use all available resources—powerful education techniques, technological innovation, subject matter expertise and a global concern for the welfare of all people—to meet our objectives,” Lewis explained. “We believe we can change the world, one mind at a time.”

More information about the World Education Council, including opportunities for participation, is available at www.WorldEducationCouncil.org.