Takumi Shibata
Nikko Asset Management (“Nikko AM”) has announced a partnership with Japan for UNHCR, a national partner of UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), whereby Nikko AM globally supports funding towards school supplies and textbooks, access to schools, and extracurricular and classroom facilities through the UNHCR Educate A Child (EAC) programme.
“Today, 65 million people have been forced from their homes worldwide, among them nearly 22.5 million refugees – with over half under the age of 18. With this partnership, Nikko AM aims to help address this humanitarian crisis and give these children a chance at a brighter future,” said Nikko Asset Management President & CEO Takumi Shibata.
Since 2012, with UNHCR, the Educate A Child (EAC) programme has helped tens of thousands of refugee children to attend schools in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. EAC is a global programme of the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, which has become a vital supporter of UNHCR work to extend quality primary education to refugee children around the world.
“We sincerely welcome Nikko AM’s support for education for refugee children. Approximately half of the 6 million school-age children under UNHCR’s mandate have no school to go to. With education, we can meaningfully impact the future of these children, giving them the tools to positively shape both their countries of asylum and their home countries when they return,” said Saburo Takizawa, Chairman of Japan for UNHCR.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. It works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home.