This month, Sister Beatriz Martinez-Garcia will participate in the Transforming Education Summit, September 16-19, during the 77th Session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly. As the SSND non-governmental organization (NGO) representative at the U.N., Sister Beatriz works with other NGOs to bring a variety of urgent needs related to dignity of life and care for creation to the attention of the U.N. member states.
The Transforming Education Summit (TES), a key initiative of the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda, spotlights the urgency to transform education. TES provides a platform to elevate and address the current global education crisis while mobilizing the ideas and resources necessary to address pandemic-related learning losses.
Following the Secretary-General’s agenda, UNESCO released a report about the future of education from which Sister Beatriz found the following statement particularly meaningful ahead of TES, “Education is one of the key ways to address inequality, exclusion and work on healing our damaged planet. But to transform the world, education needs to be transformed.”
SSND has a rich history and commitment towards education. The SSND 24th Directional Statement, Love Gives Everything, states that “we risk innovative responses as educators in a rapidly changing world impacted by globalization and technology.” (YAS, Prologue; C 22-24, 26)
Sister Beatriz explained, “We are called to respond to urgent and critical global concerns and to address and dare to respond boldly in unsuspected ways. Education is one of those concerns.”
While Sister Beatriz attends the summit in New York, others can tune into presentations online, which are broadcast through the United Nations Web TV. Another way to participate is to submit educational practices that could be scaled up to benefit more people, especially the most marginalized.
In addition to issues of social development, Sister Beatriz participates in U.N. events throughout the year that address gender equality, human trafficking, migration and Indigenous peoples concerns. Learn more about SSND involvement at the United Nations here.
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