Just reading this blog means that you can count yourself among those in the world who are literate. Being able to read and understand what you are reading brings many privileges into your daily life that you probably don’t even think about: following a recipe, reading the newspaper, helping your child with their homework, and simply enjoying a good book.
Today is International Literacy Day. Each September 8th since 1967, the world has set aside this day to advocate for closing the gap in global literacy. In Canada, literacy rates are 99% but many other places around the world are not so fortunate. In the Republic of South Sudan, for example, only 26.8 percent of people aged 15 or older are literate. How can a child reach their full potential if they cannot read and understand a simple sentence?
We know too that literacy drives all other forms of development. Gains in education are linked to improved health, fewer child marriages, economic growth, a greener planet, and more peaceful societies. Education is life-changing.
Eight years before UNESCO designated International Literacy Day, CODE was born in a church basement in Toronto. In 1959, a group of educators, librarians, and publishing professionals began packing unused books to ship to Africa in tea chests. Today we intentionally supply schools in Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone with books that are written and illustrated by local authors and illustrators, often in African languages, so that children can relate to the stories and see themselves and their culture valued.
CODE is Canada’s leading international development agency focused uniquely on education and literacy. In addition to books, CODE provides training to teachers in the use of instructional strategies that transform education from a one-way transfer of information (rote learning) to a dynamic process where the student is reading the text themselves, engaged, asking questions and developing critical thinking skills. Students are not only learning to read but reading to learn.
Before coming to CODE, I had lived for almost 20 years in Africa. While the state of education and quality of schools varied from place to place, I observed that the push for education and the drive to break the cycle of poverty is universal.
In September 2019 I had the pleasure to meet Whyteline, a 12-year-old girl living with her mother in Ashanti Region in Ghana where CODE has been working since 1990. Whyteline is in her first year of junior high school and is eager to learn. Each morning she walks 45 minutes to get to school and every afternoon makes the same trek home. She loves to read the books that CODE has provided to her school. She reads them aloud to her mother whose English is poor. Whyteline said this to me,
"My grandmother didn’t go to school because in those days, that is what happened. My mother finished junior high school, but I will go even further…. I want to be a doctor.”
I believe and CODE believes that Whyteline has the potential to be a doctor and contribute to the health of her community and the development of her country. On this International Literacy Day, take a moment to be thankful for your own opportunity to learn to read, and read to learn - and remember those around the world who are yearning for the same chance.
-Janet Phillips | Fund Development Manager | www.code.ngo
The Sisters of St. Joseph are proud to support the work of CODE.