ProLiteracy Partner Wins UNESCO Prize for Literacy

Operation Upgrade-ProLiteracy relationship dates back 40 years

Syracuse, NY
August 4, 2008

The head of the world’s largest organization of adult basic education and literacy programs today congratulated its partner program in South Africa for winning the 2008 Confucius Prize for Literacy awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“Operation Upgrade’s KwaNibela Project is a perfect example of what this year’s UNESCO prize is all about — an innovative program that teaches literacy to women and that focuses on literacy and health,” said David C. Harvey, president and CEO of ProLiteracy. “We at ProLiteracy have long been aware of the excellent work being done through Operation Upgrade; we’re happy for them that the rest of the world will now recognize it as well.”

Operation Upgrade is a 42-year old literacy and development nongovernmental organization based in Durban, South Africa. The KwaNibela Project targets 430 adult learners between the ages of 25 and 50 years old, offering adult literacy classes, food tunnels and seedling nursery, HIV and AIDS and human rights education.

ProLiteracy has partnered with Operation Upgrade for more than 40 years, providing the program with financial support, interns, and onsite training for Operation Upgrade staff. Dr. Frank Laubach, adult literacy pioneer and founder of one of ProLiteracy’s parent programs, was involved in creating the partnership between ProLiteracy and Operation Upgrade. In 2005, a representative from Operation Upgrade spent time in ProLiteracy partner programs in India and interned at ProLiteracy’s U.S. headquarters as part of a leadership development project.

Operation Upgrade is South Africa's largest non-governmental literacy and development organization that works with the country's most impoverished people. Programs focus on income generating skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, women's rights, and the environment. Operation Upgrade also publishes and disseminates up-to-date learning materials in South Africa's major languages. ProLiteracy works with grassroots organizations such as Operation Upgrade in 65 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, providing small grants, training, and technical support to programs that combine literacy instruction with community development projects in a method ProLiteracy developed called Literacy for Social Change.

“Everyone at ProLiteracy sends congratulations to everyone at Operation Upgrade,” Harvey said. “We look forward to a continued partnership and much more success.”

About ProLiteracy
ProLiteracy promotes literacy in the context of people’s daily lives —at home, at work, and in the community —through education, training and technical assistance, publications, research, policy development, and advocacy. ProLiteracy works with adult new readers and learners, and in partnership with local, national and international organizations, including volunteer-based literacy programs and the traditional adult basic education system, and agencies specializing in workforce readiness, health literacy, and English as a second language. ProLiteracy has member programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Internationally, ProLiteracy works with 125 nongovernmental agencies in 65 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. For more information, please go to www.proliteracy.org.