International Programs Update

Click here to view ProLiteracy Worldwide president/CEO Robert Wedgeworth's International Literacy Day statement.

ProLiteracy releases international programs update on International Literacy Day

Syracuse, NY
September 8, 2006

Men and women attend classes together for the first time in Afghanistan. Liberian women who know little about their bodies learn about personal health and first aid. Nicaraguan parents who never sent their children to school realize the need for education. These are just a few of the literacy-based community projects detailed in ProLiteracy Worldwide’s International Programs Update, an overview of ProLiteracy’s 120 partner programs in 62 developing countries. ProLiteracy Worldwide is the largest organization of nongovernmental adult literacy programs in the world.

ProLiteracy released the report today to coincide with International Literacy Day. Initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Literacy Day is designed to draw attention to the millions of people around the world who lack the ability to read and write in their native language and who do not have access to education.

ProLiteracy’s partner programs teach reading and writing in combination with programs that are related to improving health, the environment, educational opportunities, resolving disputes, human rights, or economic development. All programs are locally managed, and program participants select the project based on what their community most needs.

“If you’re going to start a small business, you need to keep records. If you’re going to start a health clinic you need to keep a record of what decisions were made,” Lynn Curtis, ProLiteracy’s vice president of international programs, says. “As people gain the information and the skills that come with our literacy programs, they learn to make important changes in their lives such as improving their income or improving health, building latrines or clean water systems, starting human rights programs, or overcoming conflicts among tribal groups. Because it’s their program and their ideas, these tend to be very sustainable changes.”

According to UNESCO, more than 770 million adults worldwide cannot read, write, or problem-solve at a level that enables them to successfully carry out their roles as parents, citizens, and workers in the 21st century. Two out of every three of those adults are women.

The International Programs Update is available online. Click here for the complete report.

ProLiteracy Worldwide, the largest organization of nongovernmental adult literacy programs in the world, represents 1,200 local program affiliates in all 50 states and 120 partner programs in 62 developing countries. ProLiteracy provides local literacy programs with the training, technical assistance, materials, and other support they need to provide one-on-one, small group, and classroom instruction in literacy and English as a second language to adults and their families. These affiliates and partners work with more than 350,000 adult literacy students each year. ProLiteracy Worldwide has its headquarters in Syracuse, N.Y. For more information, please visit www.proliteracy.org.