Illiteracy leads to poverty, deprivation and under-development. Women are especially vulnerable. But experience shows that when women are educated infant mortality goes down, family health improves and income and productivity go up. For everyone's sake, women need better access to education, training and information.
Bangladesh: Breaking the cycle
"The happiness of a family depends on the quality of the women." It is a motto of the Church of Bangladesh's Social Development Programme. Its functional literacy projects go beyond basic reading and writing, helping women to use knowledge to generate income through group savings' plans, nutrition, marriage rights and HIV/AIDS education. Twenty eight-year-old Ambia Khatun is a typical project member. Married at 18 with four children, she joined the Ekota literacy programme and joined a women's credit union, contributing five taka a month (10 US cents). Later she took out a loan from the group to start a small business selling rice and her children can now afford to attend school. In her district only 16% of people are literate, training facilities are poor and family hardship means that children must work instead of attending school. In Ambia Khatun's case, the functional literacy approach has shown that the cycle of poverty and illiteracy can be broken.
Korea: A right to information
Basic literacy among women in Korea is high: around 97%. The concern now, though, is that the "second illiteracy" – access to information – is preventing their having a voice in political and social issues. Women in Korea are neglected in science and technical education. So, while the internet holds vast amounts of information, the lack of computer skills effectively makes them illiterate in the Information Age.
In 1996, concerned that the lack of technical education would reinforce the low status of women, the Korean Women and Information Institute set up FemiNet Korea. FemiNet created a private women's network where women could discuss problems and share information on the Internet. It now offers information education courses and a chance to improve computer skills. Its "electronic democracy" project allows women to take part in political debates, argue civil rights and make contacts with other activists.
The Centre for Korean Women and Politics provides training for women to become political leaders. Women who want to run for office are trained in how to run election campaigns and make speeches. Says the Centre, "We have an overriding belief that women's talents are increasingly needed in the evolution of democracy in Korea."
Contact www.feminet.org.kr for membership and more details.
UK: More than reading and writing
UK-based charity Womankind links with several partner organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America: "Our partners tell us we need the confidence which comes from knowledge." They have developed the idea of "four literacies" to describe what women need:
Word literacy – getting access to information which opens up possibilities for action and growth. Money literacy – being able to take control of their day-to-day lives economically.
Body literacy – knowing about nutrition, sexuality, health and stress and being able to protect themselves.
Civil literacy – being aware of basic rights and having the confidence and knowledge to demand them. Work on literacy and getting access to knowledge, says Director Kate Young, is "a key piece in a strategy to end women's poverty and discrimination". Contact Womankind Worldwide at 3 Albion Place, Galena Road, London W6 0LT, UK. www.oneworld.org/womankind
Bible Study:
Luke 1.46-53 Mary's song is a shout of joy: she can scarcely believe what is happening. God, the all-powerful, has done a great thing to her (v49). The whole passage praises how God empowers the marginalised. Look at the contrasts: putting down the mighty and rich and giving status to those humiliated by society and the hungry (vs52-53).
The focus of the song is not so much on Mary but on the whole new order that the coming of Jesus represents. God's turning the world upside down affects the political and military order (vs51-52), economic inequality (v53) and cultural prejudices about childlessness which humiliate women like Mary (v48). But do we support the new order? Verse 50 harks back to the Old Testament idea that God blesses those who follow his ways.
Questions
(United Nations Development Programme, Oxfam, World Declaration on Education for All 1990, United Nations Economic and Social Commission Asia-Pacific)
Activities