On The Front Lines
New to Oldspeak: FADA Founder Pedro Moreno Shares Plan to Enlist Fathers in Global Outreach Effort to Narrow the Gap in Girls' Access to Education
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Sixty-four percent of the 774 million illiterate adults worldwide are women. This disparity in education has given rise to a vicious cycle that, according to Pedro Moreno, president and founder of the Father and Daughter Alliance (FADA), results in many girls ending up in domestic servitude; marrying early; being abused and/or neglected; trafficked and prostituted; genitally mutilated; unable to access opportunities; and continually dependent on others for all their needs. However, it has been shown that a single year of primary education correlates with a 10 to 20 percent increase in women's wages later in life. And an extra year of a woman's education has been shown to reduce the risk that her children will die in infancy by 5 to 10 percent. OldSpeak talks to Moreno about his efforts to address the gap in educational opportunities worldwide between boys and girls.
Launched in New Delhi, India, in January 2009, FADA is a movement of family men/fathers who are committed to narrowing the gap in girls' education. Moreno is working to build a coalition of concerned fathers, government agencies and non-governmental organizations that will reach out to fathers in developing countries and urge them to help their daughters and other girls enroll and complete primary education and then access the same educational, economic and societal opportunities that are available to boys. FADA will also initially work in Afghanistan, Benin, Guatemala and Yemen, countries where girls not attending school outnumber boys three or four to one. "If we want our communities to be successful, we cannot leave half the population behind with women being illiterate and disempowered," stated Moreno.
Pedro Moreno has substantive experience in the field of social policy and economic mobility. He has served in the private and public sectors, including the Social Emergency Fund (in cooperation with the World Bank), The Rutherford Institute, Prison Fellowship International and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. During the administration of George W. Bush, he worked for the White House Drug Policy Office. Moreno served as a United States Government delegate to the Executive Board of UNICEF, attended and spoke at the NGO Forum of the UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, helped negotiate the outcome document for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children (New York, 2002), and was a delegate to the WHO-UNICEF Consultation on Child/Adolescent Health (Stockholm, 2002). In addition to a law degree from Bolivia, Moreno received a Master's in international law and economic development from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and completed the specialization in negotiation and conflict resolution at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Moreno has traveled in 65 countries on all continents. He actively promoted responsible/involved fatherhood programs (i.e., fathers respecting their wives, helping at home and nurturing their children) during his time at the Administration for Children and Families (HHS).
OldSpeak, the online journal of The Rutherford Institute, is dedicated to publishing interviews, articles and commentary on subjects often overlooked by the mainstream media in the areas of politics, art, culture, law and religion. The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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