Big news came today from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s headquarters in Paris, France: the winners of the 2011 UNESCO Literacy Prizes have been announced, and Room to Read has been chosen as one of the awardees for the 2011 Confucius Prize for Literacy!
The award, established in 2005, recognizes the activities of outstanding individuals, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in literacy. This year, Room to Read's Local Language Publishing program was recognized for its success in producing and distributing high-quality, culturally-relevant books to young readers in Asia and Africa.
UNESCO’s selection committee also commended our commitment to increasing local capacity by working with local authors and illustrators to produce over 550 original local-language children's books to date.
The Room to Read team will be on hand in New Delhi, India, on September 8 to officially accept the award at UNESCO’s International Literacy Day celebration, which includes a $20,000 grant to fund our programs. Photos of our work will also be on display as part of an exhibition at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris September 5-11, alongside images from fellow 2011 Literacy Award winners from Burundi, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and programs with Honorable Mentions from Pakistan and the Philippines.
We are extremely honored by UNESCO's choice to recognize Room to Read’s work, and by the thoughtful nomination submitted by Dr. Fernando Reimers of our board of directors.
Thank you to everyone who has invested in our literacy programs over the past 11 years—we could not do any of it without you!
You can read about all the 2011 Literacy Prize winners in UNESCO’s Press Release.
Learn about our Local Language Publishing program on the Room to Read website.
Nice , Congrats to Room To read and thanks to UNSECO for prizing my best organization.
Posted by: oscience | Aug 01, 2011 at 01:41 AM
Way to go Room to Read- so well deserved! The books are incredible, beautiful and so locally created.
Posted by: Kelly Morphy | Aug 18, 2011 at 08:59 PM
Congratulations.
Posted by: Vinod | Dec 23, 2011 at 08:50 AM
I have no figures, but it is known that iltaelricy levels among girls in Kenya was slightly higher than that of boys. I say was' because since free primary school education was implemented in 2004, many more girls have started to go to school. Infact, so many new children were enrolled that year the teachers were overwhelmed. Some may since have dropped out for various reasons, and they may never go back so they will basically be illiterate adults. Most illiterate adults in Kenya mostly live outside urban areas, especially in areas where the infrastructure is poor and they have to walk many miles to school. But in most cases, girls are forced to drop out of school due to early marriages. When they have children it becomes very difficult to go back to school. What should be done? Deal with marriage of very young girls.
Posted by: Sascha | May 30, 2012 at 05:54 AM