HELPING COMMUNITIES TO READ THE WORLD

LAUNCHING THE CAMPAIGN TO STEM THE TIDE OF ILLITERACY TO COMBAT HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA 771 million adults, majority of whom are women lack literacy skills. 100 million school-age children were not in school and as a result were not learning to read and write. Tragically, Nigeria's illiteracy accounts for 50 million precious souls, the highest on the African continent, while HIV/AIDS infections are most frightening. Africa's battle for survival is vastly losing ground every day for millions of women and children. 64% of all HIV/AIDS positive people worldwide and 76% of all women and mothers with the virus live in Africa. The HIV virus has countries by their throats and they are gasping for survival. In Lesotho, the Demographic Health Survey of 2005 showed a prevalence rate of 25%. Swaziland continues to have the highest prevalence rate in the world at 42.6%. In its recent antenatal survey of pregnant women between the ages of 25 and 29, the prevalence rate was 56.3%. read more...

WHO WE ARE
We are an organisation dedicated to establish functionally literate communities that foster HIV/AIDS Prevention, Gender Equality, Self-Sufficiency and promotion of Healthy Lifestyles.

We accomplish this through multi-sectoral development programs, partnerships and research in collaboration with local communities, academia, intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and donors.

WHY LITERACY?
Have you asked yourself what a child’s or mother’s world is like when he or she cannot read or write? Do you understand what impact this has on community health, economic wellbeing and all other aspects of a person’s development? Have you pondered the issue of why traditional peoples need an education?  Do you know that illiteracy is perceived as a scourge and combined with the HIV/AIDS infection one becomes the scorn of society?

Education is meaningless and non-functional to a mother or child if what is being taught to her or him is not given local illustrations relevant to her or his life-world, thoughtpattern and mindset. Examples are the big scientific words we tend to use, e.g. “incubation period of the HIV virus” or “opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS.” These cannot be meaningfully interpreted or explained into the local language context because such specific words and explanations might not exist in their language, thinking and culture.  Culturally specific parallel concrete examples need to be taught, e.g. incubation period may be understood through referencing human conception, growth-of-foetus and birthing time period.

IS LITERACY ENOUGH AND DOES IT IMPLY THAT ONE CAN AUTOMATICALLY FUNCTION WITH WHAT HAS BEEN NEWLY ACQUIRED?

Research has shown that literacy alone does not teach a person how to function in society. For this reason, it became necessary that we identify a way for mothers, youths and children to learn new skills and practices that enhance culture while simultaneously equipping them with knowledge and skills to facilitate their participation in social, economic and political processes that will transform their lives. This milestone cannot be achieved unless they learn to read, write and apply what they have learned. If they don’t apply what they’ve learned, they might easily forget it, or revert to what they feel comfortable with. What was hoped for in the acquisition of new knowledge is that it would’ve changed their life circumstance. In other words, “learning how to function within the context of that new language system” is pivotal to bridge the gap between poverty and prosperity.  This process can take a very long time depending on how strong certain mores are ingrained in societal fabric. That is why it is so important also that one’s worldview is transformed. 

HOW DOES LITERACY CONTRIBUTE TO PROTECTING ONESELF AND COMMUNITY FROM ILLNESSES?

Many traditional communities believe that illness is associated with witchcraft. Millions also practice female genital mutilation and are ignorant of the devastating health consequences and even death. Many communities do not want their children to be immunised against diseases because they associate immunisation with infertility. The understanding of disease processes, for example, requires the understanding and application of life skills to manage self care.  This is where the function of literacy becomes so crucial. It is becoming more challenging with the re-emergence of infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis, previously under control in many parts of the world. The emergence of unknown infectious diseases such as the Ebola and other hemorrhagic viruses have claimed many lives. “Chikungunya” is another crippling disease that is on the rise in Islands of the Indian Ocean. Drug resistance such as seen in persons infected with Tuberculosis and Malaria are a major problem developing nations are grappling with. Changes in the strains of viruses require complex treatment and follow up and many healthcare systems are simply inadequate. Health literacy requires the mastery of basic literacy. It is an intensive learning process that equips the mothers with knowledge, skills and understanding of these complexities to make the best choices to protect their family and community from diseases and also to have her children immunised.

HOW DOES LITERACY FACILITATE THE ADAPTATION TO CHANGES OUTSIDE OF THE COMMUNITY? 

Changes inevitably affect the day-to-day activities communities engage in to sustain their lives in that the behaviour and consumption pattern are affected. These changes are not limited to the world’s economic markets (e.g. globalization and trade liberalization, changes in demographics, changes in climatology and weather patterns, changes in the environment, large scale environmental hazards and the introduction of refined foods and sugars, and changes in life style). Over time, the acquisition and advancement of literacy transforms the worldview and contributes to the development of critical thinking, critical decision-making and new responsibilities and actions, that traditional peoples may not have encountered, but yet need for survival in the globalized village.  

WHY ARE WE HERE?

In sub-Saharan Africa some 30 million girls are out of school.  Of the 100 million children in the world who do not attend school, 44 million are from Africa, the majority are girls from the sub-Saharan region.

NIGERIA has been identified as the single greatest risk to a polio free world even as efforts to totally eradicate the disease from the surface of the earth moved into the final stage. Currently, Nigeria is the world's most endemic country for polio with a disease burden that ranks more than 13 times higher than the burden of India -- the country with the next highest number of cases.

Zambia reported the highest levels of stunting in Africa, with 51.9 percent of children less than 5 years of age stunted. The highest levels of stunting were recorded in the provinces of Luapula, where 63 percent of children under five are stunted; Eastern province, 64 percent; and the Southern province, where the largest humanitarian operation was focused throughout the drought, the figure was 44 percent.

The National Agency for Prohibition and Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP, Nigeria) has disclosed that more than 15 million Nigerian children are being transported from rural to urban cities for exploitative child labour and slavery in stone quarries and across borders.

In Kenya more than one million children in urban slums and arid areas are still out of school.  Performance of students in absolute terms is low whereby less than 20 per cent of them have achieved competency in reading. The school completion at the primary level stands at 57 per cent.

In Kibuye district of Rwanda, 41.3 percent of adults cannot read and write due to an ineffectual adult education project. Illiteracy is said to be a hindrance to development.

In Nigeria Prof. Gidado Tahir listed the challenges in 2006 to include the fact that more than eight million children 6 to 11 years were not in school, the drop-out rate in primary school grew to 9.3 per cent and that the transition rate to secondary school is 61 per cent.

A recently released World Health Organisation (WHO) report warned that most developing nations will not meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on HIV/AIDS, child mortality and maternal health. Deaths included almost 11 million children under five, about one million people succumbing to malaria and more than 500,000 women passing away during pregnancy and childbirth. The AIDS pandemic claimed three million lives each year.

In Zimbabwe at least 51.4% of inmates currently held in the country's 41 prisons are infected with HIV/AIDS. Zimbabwe has limited capacity to fight its spread.
SWIHA reported that HIV/AIDS has decimated Africa's farming communities so badly that the amount of cultivated land in some countries has declined by nearly 70 per cent. About 80 per cent of Africans derive their living from agriculture but the illness, which has infected more than 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, has left fewer and fewer people able to till the soil. African agriculture depends on labour. You can't produce crops if there is nobody to work on the farms. Some rural farmers have had to cut their work load or abandon farming completely. In areas of Kenya there has been a 68 per cent reduction in cultivated land and a decline in cash crops such as coffee, tea and sugar, according to SWIHA. Some parts of Rwanda have experienced drops in the farm labour force of 60-80 percent because of sickness and deaths from the illness, while in Malawi 70 per cent of households suffered labour shortages following the death of a male. In Burkina Faso 20 per cent of rural families cut agricultural work or gave up farming because of HIV/AIDS. The pandemic also causes delays in planting and weeding, declines in livestock, falling food quality and quantity, and smaller farms. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world worst affected by HIV/AIDS. Sixty-four per cent of all HIV positive people worldwide and 76 per cent of all women with the virus are in sub-Saharan Africa. For the past 20 years since HIV/AIDS was discovered, the disease has had a great impact on the African farming community.
WE CAN ONLY CONTINUE TO BE HERE BECAUSE OF YOU!