Global Literacy Matters

From Alesha Anderson, international programs coordinator at ProLiteracy: Corporacion Cooperativa (CLEBA) has been pioneering literacy in Medellin, Colombia for more than 25 years, and has been partnering with ProLiteracy for more than 20 years. I started my trip in Colombia visiting CELBA’s national office and spent the morning talking to one of their literacy instructors and some of the participants. The instructor, Dioselin, has been working with CLEBA for more than eight years. He says that in addition to reading and writing, CLEBA offers a time for dialogue where participants share stories, thoughts, and feelings they are experiencing as they pursue their ‘journey in learning’. Dioselin also shared a story about a member of the community who had been an ex-paramilitary soldier. The paramilitaries are a terrorist group that have always fought and competed with the opposing terrorist faction. When the former soldier joined the literacy class, he didn’t talk much. Nor did he lift...

ProLiteracy staff has had one action-packed week in Latin America! I (Alesha Anderson, ProLiteracy’s international program officer) arrived in El Salvador to visit village banks and see how clients had been able to improve their businesses since ProLiteracy’s training event in June 2010. Once Lynn Curtis, ProLiteracy senior advisor, and Dean Curtis, of Interweave Solutions arrived, we immediately launched refresher training for field officers of new village banks. The training went very well! Loan officers at 18 banks are motivated to go forward with planned community instruction and community action projects. FINCA, a global microfinance organization, has recently hired 40 new individual loan officers who had no training or awareness of our project. We were able to work with individual loan officers and create a plan for them to use ProLiteracy’s literacy and micro finance training to work individually with each of their clients. Each individual loan officer will gather groups of ...

ProLiteracy is pleased to announce the release of a new paper [1] on education and civic participation. This paper was written by Roxana Silva Ch., a 2009-2010 Hubert Humphrey Fellow at Syracuse University and a specialist working for Organizaccion , a grass roots organization in Ecuador specializing in democracy, transparency and governance. Educacion y Participacion Ciudadana explains the role education has in civic participation and outlines ways that individuals and community leaders can participate in practicing their civic rights. The paper stresses that when literacy is integrated with education on citizen’s rights, people are able to play a more active role in the decision making process, have access to public information, and keep their government leaders accountable. Silva emphasizes that knowledge of one’s rights is critical for social empowerment at the local level. Two of ProLiteracy’s partners, PLAMAC in Mexico and Tú Mujer in the Dominican Republic, are included...

Organizaccion , a grass roots organization in Ecuador specializing in democracy, transparency, and governance, held a special event in Ecuador on January 12, 2011 at 5 p.m. at the National Assembly of Quito. More than 80 representatives of NGOs, and national leaders attended, as Roxana Silva Ch. presented her ideas on civic participation, based on her recent paper ‘Educacion y Participacion Ciudadana, ’ recently published as part of ProLiteracy’s Critical Issues in Literacy series. ProLiteracy’s partners, PLAMAC and Tú Mujer tuned in live at the event and shared examples of integrating literacy with education on civic participation in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. ProLiteracy's international programs manager Mary Kelly participated via video from Syracuse, N.Y., and ProLiteracy’s international programs coordinator Alesha Anderson helped with coordination on site in Quito. The event was recorded and will soon be shared.

Here are more exciting updates on site visits to ProLiteracy's Latin America partner projects from Alesha Anderson, international programs coordinator, and Lynn Curtis, international services consultant: Fundacion Bienestar Humano Fundacion Bienestar Humano provides holistic family programs for marginalized populations, including populations that have been displaced by conflict and guerilla warfare throughout Colombia. FBH has hosted various literacy and micro enterprise training initiatives this year to help participants improve their businesses and support their families. Pueblorico Pueblorica is a small community about four hours from Medellin, Colombia. Their literacy and micro enterprise project focuses on cooperative clothing design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. Pueblorico works mainly with women and is growing with new products and increasing levels of participation from community members. Fundacion Juan Tama Fundacion Juan Tama works with adult learners...

We at ProLiteracy are excited to start 2011 by visiting partner programs in Latin America! In January 2011, Alesha Anderson, international programs coordinator, and Lynn Curtis, international services consultant, are traveling to Haiti, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Colombia, visiting literacy and micro finance projects. Here are some exciting updates on site visits to the following programs: Fonkoze Fonkoze i s the largest micro finance institution in Haiti, working with 45,000 borrowers, most of whom are women living and working in the countryside of Haiti. Currently they are working with ProLiteracy to help more than 8,000 women improve their lives by becoming literate and starting small businesses. Fonkoze has been partnering with ProLiteracy for six years. Organizaccion Organizaccion is a grass roots non-governmental organization (NGO) that works with local government councils in five provinces around Ecuador. Organizaccion provides capacity building and professional developme...