President Alejandro Toledo told this story, his story, Sunday morning to a standing room only crowd at the Davos presentation of NetAid World Schoolhouse. "I am a fighter of poverty and a fanatic for education. Today I stand here, in front of you, as the President of Peru, because of access to education."

President Toledo was joined by Queen Rania of Jordan, and NetAid board members Quincy Jones, John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Mark Malloch Brown of UNDP and Don Listwin of Openwave Systems.

The figures speak for themselves: 125 million of the world's children, more than 60 percent of them girls, with no opportunity to go to school. The NetAid World Schoolhouse, a new initiative that offers companies, schools, community groups and individuals the opportunity to provide direct support for innovative education projects in developing countries, is designed to change these numbers.

Artist and Entertainer Quincy Jones, set the stage by calling upon "corporations, philanthropic entities and informed individuals" to support the NetAid World Schoolhouse, and help it "fulfill its enormous potential."

Gene Sperling, Economics Advisor under the Clinton Administration and currently with the Brookings Forum on Universal Education, described a trip to Senegal with President Clinton. In a visit to a school on the outskirts of Dakar, Sperling was warned that the children might make unreasonable requests of him. One child stood up, and asked if next year, they could have a third grade and a bathroom. "I support the NetAid World Schoolhouse," Sperling said, "because everybody must know that these are not unreasonable requests."

John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems urged fellow CEOs to get involved in the growing NetAid alliance. He praised the NetAid World Schoolhouse for bringing together "the world's two great equalizers"--education and the Internet. Through NetAid, Chambers and Cisco are supporting quality education projects in Burkina Faso and India.

Representatives of the NetAid World Schoolhouse projects in Peru, Ghana and Pakistan explained how their work was changing the lives and future prospects of children. Campaign for Female Education's Director Ann Cotton, spoke movingly of a child in Northern Ghana named Rabi, who told her, "When I learned that I could go to school, I was so happy, I felt I could jump and touch the sky."

Cris Conde, President of SunGard Data Systems, Doug Cahn, Vice-President for Human Rights at Reebok and Don Listwin, President and CEO of Openwave and chair of the NetAid board of directors, recounted why their companies and employees had chosen to support NetAid World Schoolhouse projects. They urged other corporate leaders in the room to step forward and do the same.

We couldn't have asked for a better introduction of the NetAid World Schoolhouse. We had tremendous support Sunday from top leaders in corporations, governments, civil society and the world of entertainment. And a tremendous response afterward from people wanting to get immediately involved. So where to now?

Going forward our challenge will be to sustain this momentum. The key will be effective partnerships. Over the past six months at NetAid we've scoured the world to find the most innovative primary education projects that exist, we've vetted them to ensure they'll show measurable, sustainable results, and our implementing partners are ready to go. Now we need partners on the other end - corporations, schools, community groups and individuals - willing to step up, get involved, and put more kids into school.

Money is important, obviously. But NetAid World Schoolhouse needs more than money from its partners. It needs their involvement. At NetAid we're committed to working with our corporate partners to see how their unique competencies, products, strategies and employee commitment can help put more of the world's poorest kids into school. In turn we offer accountability and transparency in all our operations, as well as innovative solutions--on the Internet and on corporate intranets--that promote direct involvement of employees and customers.

It would take only $7 billion dollars to ensure that every child in the world receives a quality education. That's roughly equal to four days of world military spending, or what Europeans spend on ice cream each year. Education is not a privilege; it is the birthright of every child. The NetAid World Schoolhouse is now in session. Judging by Sunday's response, we've made a very good start.