Guaranteeing inclusive education for all: this is the challenge that, for the third consecutive year, Oxfam is launching together with Mondadori Store through the Christmas project “Wrap a book, give a future”: until 24 December, in fact, it will be possible to have Christmas gifts wrapped by one of the Oxfam volunteers present in the Mondadori bookshops of the main Italian cities participating in the initiative. The project is part of a partnership that involves the largest network of bookshops in Italy, Mondadori Store, and Oxfam, the international confederation of non-profit organizations dedicated to reducing global poverty, to help and support families who find themselves in socially difficult contexts, offering them support for the education of their children.
Oxfam has been active for over 20 years, in Italy and around the world, in programs to fight educational poverty and in the dissemination of principles for global citizenship education that aims at an inclusive culture, perfectly in line with the objectives of the network Mondadori Retail and the entire Mondadori Group.
The funds raised in previous years have been invaluable in supporting thousands of young people for scholastic recovery and for motivational and educational support in secondary schools of both levels.
Thanks to “Wrap a book, give a future”, this Christmas too you will be able to contribute to the initiative aimed at guaranteeing fairness and equal opportunities for access and academic success to the most vulnerable students, through emotional, motivational and educational support, and thus prevent them from being at risk of educational exclusion and school dropout. The small donation can be made directly in the bookshops participating in the initiative and also online, through the dedicated page: www.oxfamitalia.org/mondadori/.
For three years now, Oxfam, with the support of Mondadori Store, has been committed to combating school dropouts and educational poverty, improving access to socio-cultural services for families in great economic difficulty. This year, the project involves over 150 schools, more than six thousand students and hundreds of teachers, and has the aim of contributing to building an inclusive school: offering educational innovation paths and exchange opportunities with other European schools; strengthening support opportunities for children at risk of dropping out of school; by offering courses to recover linguistic and scholastic skills in various subjects, and finally by implementing linguistic mediation activities aimed at foreign students.
The collaboration between Oxfam and Mondadori Store involves the creation, in various cities, of numerous activities to animate and redevelop the spaces experienced by young people inside and outside schools.
“The objective set at European level is to reduce the rate of early school leaving to 9% by 2030 and, despite the progress made in recent years, at national level we are still at 12.7%. – explains Roberto Barbieri, general director of Oxfam Italia – For this reason, our work is aimed again this year at supporting a school capable of leaving no one behind, attentive to the well-being of pupils and teachers, at working in synergy with the actors premises and to innovate teaching. A commitment that looks above all to those young people who, in the “suburbs” of our cities, experience conditions of greater social hardship and risk remaining on the margins. We want to thank Mondadori Store for its support, with which we can be even more effective”, concludes Barbieri.
“School exclusion risks becoming an even more evident phenomenon for some sections of the population, in a global context of uncertainty and economic crisis like the one we are experiencing. As publishers and booksellers, we have a responsibility to offer our support to guarantee a better future for children and young people. We therefore continue our commitment alongside Oxfam, aware that culture and education are primary channels for promoting inclusiveness, social cohesion and the growth of all of us, in line with the sustainability objectives of the entire Mondadori Group” , declares Francesco Riganti, marketing director of Mondadori Retail.
The Mondadori Store initiative with Oxfam is part of the social responsibility path that the Mondadori Group has undertaken for some time, also through a series of activities to support communities, from the promotion of reading and education to training and social assistance and healthcare.
