Executive Director's Corner

Yasmine Sherif speaking with a kid from Lebanon
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ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

Yasmine Sherif is the Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW). A lawyer specialized in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law (LL.M), she has over 30 years of experience with the United Nations and international NGOs. 

Ms. Sherif has served in some of the most crisis-affected areas of the world, including Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Balkans, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan as well as in New York and Geneva. She has led high-level missions to numerous conflict and crisis-affected countries. Her expertise spans across the education, humanitarian, development, human rights, gender and peacekeeping spectrum.

She is the author of the book, The Case for Humanity: An Extraordinary Session, and a Champion for ‘No Lost Generation.’ In 2017, she received the annual award Sweden’s UN Friend of the Year, in 2020 she was awarded the Global Educator Award in the United States, and in 2022 she received on behalf of Education Cannot Wait, the prestigious Mother Teresa Award.

 

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All Statements and Updates

05 November 2021
Videos

The Climate Crisis is an Education Crisis : ECW Director's Message on #COP26

ECW Director Yasmine Sherif addresses the interconnected crises of COVID-19, climate change and conflict in this inspiring address to the UN's Climate Talks.
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ECW DIRECTOR YASMINE SHERIF COMMEMORATES UN DAY
25 October 2021
Director's Corner

ECW Director Yasmine Sherif Commemorates UN Day

As prepared for delivery. In 1945, 76 years ago, in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, with fresh and raw wounds still open the founders of the United Nations brought purpose and hope to the world. One delegate who was present in San Francisco remembered: “We had...
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Winning the Human Race, Together
15 October 2021
Director's Corner

Winning the Human Race, Together

“Now is the time for a stronger, more networked and inclusive multilateral system anchored in the United Nations,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his latest report “Our Common Agenda.” Indeed, there is a fork in the road: we can either choose to breakdown or to breakthrough. Making this moral...
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20 September 2021
Videos

Diplomatic Avenue : Al Arabiya Exclusive with Yasmine Sherif, Director of UN Global Fund ECW

Take a closer look at ECW's response in Afghanistan in this high-level interview with Al Arabiya.
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We Stay and Deliver Until the Light Shines
20 September 2021
Director's Corner

We Stay and Deliver Until the Light Shines

Kabul 1990. I land in the capital of Afghanistan for my very first mission with the United Nations. Controlled by the government, Kabul was surrounded by the Mujahedeen. As a young female professional, living and working across the country, I felt protected by the Afghans, whether walking in the bustling...
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Afghanistan girls education
09 September 2021
Op-Eds

Afghanistan’s Girls Need Our Unwavering Support in Education

View Original on InterPress Service The Taliban takeover of government in Kabul is just days old, and the eyes of Afghans and the world are cautiously watching and hopeful to see them stand by their word and ensure that girls’ education be promoted and protected. Twenty years ago, under the...
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We Were Born to Do This
10 August 2021
Director's Corner

We Were Born to Do This

The first time I visited South Sudan in 2004 - prior to its independence - I travelled across the entire country which was then a region devastated by man’s inhumanity to man. Although South Sudan is slightly larger than France, I could find only one concrete school building in Rumbek...
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29 July 2021
Videos

ECW Logotherapy Life Lessons

Education Cannot Wait is developing a curriculum derived from the seminal work of world-renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”, and its related branch of psychotherapy, Logotherapy. The curriculum, which has been preliminary field-tested in Uganda, aims to fully tap into the resilience of girls and...
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Bridging the Gap and Crossing the Bridge
09 July 2021
Director's Corner

Bridging the Gap and Crossing the Bridge

It may be a challenge, but it is also an absolute necessity: bridging the gap between international law and reality and quickly crossing the bridge to reach all crisis-affected children and youth left furthest behind. Inclusive and equitable quality education is the right of every girl and boy and the...
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Theirworld and Education Cannot Wait Strongly Condemn the Abduction of Schoolchildren in Nigeria
21 June 2021
Statements

Theirworld and Education Cannot Wait Strongly Condemn the Abduction of Schoolchildren in Nigeria

We are deeply alarmed by reports of the abduction of 80 schoolchildren in the State of Kebbi in Nigeria on 17 June and call for their immediate release. This news comes only a few days after another tragic attack in which 150 students were abducted in north-central Nigeria. Such heinous...
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Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
10 June 2021
Director's Corner

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

Justice delayed is justice denied: their education cannot wait. The right to an inclusive quality education is not a privilege. It is a human right. Delaying or ignoring the right to an education equals failing to protect human rights. The longer we wait, the less we contribute to justice. For...
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24 May 2021
Videos

ECW Director Yasmine Sherif Celebrates the Fifth Anniversary of Education Cannot Wait

After five years, ECW Director thanks the partners that have helped ECW to reach millions of children worldwide with the power of education.
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Latest Photos

Access Photos of ECW Director Yasmine Sherif
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, ECW Director Yasmine Sherif and ECW staff at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif at UN's Transforming Education Summit
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Director Yasmine Sherif speaks with students during a school visit on her all-women mission to Afghanistan.
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Leading an all-women mission to Afghanistan, Director Yasmine Sherif arrives at a local school, hand-in-hand with female teachers and staff.
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Director Yasmine Sherif and actress and education champion Rachel Brosnahan take the stage at Global Citizen Live 2021 in NYC.
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Director Yasmine Sherif meets children with disabilities during ECW’s Lebanon Mission.
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Director Yasmine Sherif and Nasser Faqih, ECW Chief of Partnerships, visit a refugee camp with partners during a mission to Lebanon.
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Director Yasmine Sherif speaks with on-the-ground partners during ECW’s mission to Lebanon.

Latest Videos

Al Arabiya with Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

قناة العربية: الشارع الدبلوماسي مع طلال الحاج يستضيف ياسمين شريف حول وضع التعليم في افغانستان

Diplomatic Avenue : Al Arabiya Exclusive with Yasmine Sherif, Director of UN Global Fund ECW

ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif Celebrates the Fifth Anniversary of Education Cannot Wait

[FR] ECW Director Yasmine Sherif mission in DRC - part 1

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Resolutions are just tiny steps. To make them a reality requires Action. Until it becomes action on the ground, those words mean very little. Not until you help that child to access a safe, quality education have you actually achieved the result.

Yasmine Sherif, ECW Director