Illiteracy, A Different Perspective

As a teenager in a small rural Kentucky town, I had two choices of high schools. The larger county school where my brothers were students was our district school. A smaller city high school near my father’s office offered a more intimate classroom setting that could better meet my learning difficulties. With some logistical maneuvering on the part of my parents, I enrolled in the city high school. Not doing so would have been a missed opportunity to address issues that prevented me from learning what I needed to go further in my education.

Illiteracy: Stupidity or Missed Opportunity?

The latest figures (2014) from Unesco on the illiteracy rate among women in Guatemala aged fifteen and higher demonstrate that 1.2 million women in this Central American country can not read or write their name. http://uis.unesco.org/country/GT. We personally believe this number to be vastly under reported. And while the Ministry of Local Development has announced a target of eliminating illiteracy in Egypt within three years, current statistics show that 34% of Egyptian females cannot read or write. The challenges that this issue presents to their home countries is staggering: millions of uneducated women can never begin to hope for an economically viable future and will always be a impediment toward progress for their respective countries. In the age of computers, a person unable to communicate a written language will forever be invisible within their respective communities. And that is the tragedy.

The choice to become uneducated was made for these women by economic limitations, cultural dogma against educating females or the need for childhood labor. The trajectory of their lives were decided for them before they were old enough to have a voice. Each of these women live with the consequences of the decisions made by someone other than themselves.

Manuela (above) can’t read or write but she is educated in ways that define her as a woman of personal strength and determination. When her child was threatened, she abandoned her house and moved in with her mother to keep them safe. Manuela negotiated the Guatemalan legal system without representation, stood up to abusive in-laws and chose to love a child that landed in her lap through unspeakable circumstances. Manuela did not need a formal education in order to learn how to become a woman of fortitude.

Julia signed her contract with us using her thumb print. It is a tender and slightly disturbing moment to watch a child ink their mother’s thumb; it seems a reversal of roles to watch a child assist his mother do something so rudimentary. What she lacks in formal education this mother of two makes up for with stellar back strap weaving. Her work is some of the most skilled we have seen. There is nothing lacking in Julia’s intellect; she has memorized hundreds of stitches, colors and over a dozen complex Mayan textile designs. Her biggest talent? How to raise two boys on the one hundred dollars a month she makes from weaving six hours a day.

Eman (above) is under educated in scholastic knowledge but brilliant in how to be “street smart.” This Egyptian mother of three lives a life of scarcity in a densely populated apartment dwelling in Cairo. She knows how to cook a family meal on one gas burner, thrive emotionally in a hostile male oriented environment and raise three children to have a desire for the education that was not available to her. This mother has a drive to better herself that a college degree could not have given her and her determination won Eman the chance to participate in our Finding Freedom through Friendship micro business program. She now owns and runs her own street front office supply shop. Her willingness overcame her lack of formal education.

All of the FFF female board members had educational opportunity that our participants lacked in. Our world is not rotating on an axis of fairness, but rather fate. In a perfect world, the birthright of every child, female or male, would include a stellar education. For now, we will tip the odds as much as we are able, while also celebrating the emotional and situational intelligence of each woman in our program. They continue to inspire us.