ProLiteracy Spanish Language Paper Released

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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 in the paper as case studies of grass roots organizations that actively combine education and civic participation in their work.

ProLiteracy is proud to have collaborated with Silva and Organizaccion on this exciting paper. We look forward to sharing it with our 15 Latin American partners. Please email Mary Kelly, international programs manager, at mkelly@proliteracy.org to access the paper.


[1] Educacion y Participacion Ciudadana is the most recent addition to ProLiteracy’s Critical Issues in Literacy Series and is the first Spanish language paper in the series.

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