Literacy champions share success stories
dubai — The winners of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation’s Literacy Challenge shared how they struggled to combat illiteracy at the final day of the Literacy Challenge Forum on Tuesday.
Governorate cuts illeracy to 2%
In the ‘government’ category, Egypt’s Al Wadi Al Jadid governorate was honoured, with Mohammed Salman Ibrahim, governor of the province, receiving the accolade. The governorate gave hope to those struggling with reading and writing with effective programmes that resulted in a decrease in illiteracy rates to two per cent — the lowest in Egypt. Among the initiatives was one that saw each graduate student from the governorate meeting the literacy needs of 10 citizens in their village — a scheme that promoted community cohesiveness. Financial rewards in the form of infrastructure and development programmes were also given to villages in the governorate that had high rates of illiteracy, in cooperation with sustainable partners and institutions.
Foundation builds 100 schools
In the category of ‘institutions,’ Mohamed Henna, chairman of the Vodafone Egypt Foundation for Community Development, received the prize for implementing activities and events that covered 100 villages in Egypt. The foundation built 100 schools and its literacy programmes benefitted 419,000 people. Its medical services served 100,000 people while 50,000 students were educated and nearly 2,500 teachers were trained.
Teaching Palestinian kids
In the ‘individual’ category, Mahmoud Abbas, founder and director of the Children and Youth Association, Lebanon won the prize. He spoke about how in 1979 a first meeting in Beirut established the Higher Council of Literacy to aid Palestinian refugees.
He also highlighted how his organisation was the first aimed at preserving Palestinian children’s rights in Lebanon and how he discovered that the most prominent challenge facing children in the region was education, because, he said, this was not only about children’s academic growth, it was about their protection, with young people likely to be out on the streets facing danger if they are not in school.
A housewife’s struggle to educate women
Omani housewife Zahra bint Salem Al Ofi — the second winner in the challenge’s ‘individual’ category — took to the stage to reveal the humble beginnings of her literacy project. Started in 2008 with 22 children, she personally funded books and notebooks to the students under her care.
Four years later, Zahra’s project was widened to educate women in Oman’s remote mountainous areas and saw her aiding the opening of 22 small village schools, as well as set up pre-school education programmes. Zahra was awarded the Sultan Qaboos Award for Voluntary work in 2017 and was honoured by the Lebanese Republic as one of the 10 best leading and influential personalities in the Arab World in 2018.