A global campaign to help promote education, gender equality and the rights of women and girls was launched Friday in Shanghai, one of the host cities of the upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup.

The campaign, "Goals for Girls," was jointly kicked off by the United Nations Children's Fund and the Federation Internationale de Football Association.

It will use the FIFA Women's World Cup held from September 10 to 30 in five Chinese cities as a platform to reinforce a message that barriers can be broken and gender stereotypes can be overcome.

"The campaign highlights the need for all children worldwide to have access to quality basic education," said Richard Bridle, deputy regional director of the UNICEF Regional Office for East Asia and the Pacific at a Shanghai press conference.

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"Every child has the right to education. Without education, children, particularly girls, are more vulnerable to poverty, hunger, violence, abuse, exploitation, trafficking and HIV/AIDS, a legacy that may well be passed on to their own children."

The campaign will promote the "child-friendly school" model as an effective way to get more children into school and to improve their learning.

Child-friendly schools, which are what the UNICEF has been promoting, improve education equality and make learning a joyful experience for both girls and boys.

"Of the 115 million children worldwide who do not attend school, more than half are girls," Bridle said.

A video series of public service announcements for the campaign produced by UNICEF will be played for hundreds of thousands of football fans before each of the matches in China. The video will also be seen on television around the world.

China, which is home to 20 percent of the world's female population, has made remarkable progress in improving the situation of women and girls over the past decades in such respects as the eradication of female illiteracy, but challenges still remain, the UNICEF official said.

Sun Wen, a former member of China's national women football team and a FIFA ambassador, said at the press conference that it is a significant thing to promote female rights and she hopes to join the campaign.

(Shanghai Daily September 9, 2007)