“I passionately believe that literacy is the most reliable ticket out of poverty,” says Bateman, executive director of Calgary Reads, one of five agencies which will benefit from this year’s Canwest Raise-a-Reader campaign. See full article here.
I have had the privilege through my job to participate with great organizations like Success By 6 and Canwest Raise-a-Reader.
Success By 6 is an early childhood development initiative dedicated to providing all children with a good start in life. It helps to ensure that children ages 0 to 6 develop the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical skills they need as they enter school. Low literacy skills are some of society’s hidden handicaps. Statistics show that a shocking 22% of adult Canadians have serious problems with reading and comprehension. Raise-a-Reader is designed to address the issue head-on and raise money and awareness for children and family literacy, building stronger local communities.
Working with such organizations provides a real sense of why this issue is so serious. Think about this. In Canada- a relatively wealthy and thriving country- we are still campaigning to ensure children are getting the education they need. How can we expect those in third world countries to educate their children? Lack of education and poverty is a vicious cycle in developing countries. “People at the lowest spectrum of the economic scale are more concerned with more pressing issues related to their mere survival such as where to find food and money for clothing and shelter. After these basic needs are met, that is the only time that parents can really focus on their children’s schooling.” (Source)
Ultimately, parents in third world countries fail to see the value in education and how it can improve their lives. How can education be spread about education? This is were the vicious cycle returns. Do you know of any solutions to the current crisis?
