On September 8th, the International Literacy Day is celebrated all over the world. Growing up in Italy, where Illiteracy rates are negligible, the real scale of the issue and with it the importance of this day came to my attention only when I moved to Somaliland two years ago. Somaliland is a country with a history of conflicts, going through civil wars in the late eighties and early nineties. Although these conflicts lay some years back, Somaliland is still recovering from the devastating impact which they had - among others - on the education sector: due to the conflicts, an entire generation missed any chance to attend primary school at a young age; yet, even today, 60% of school aged children are still denied access to formal or alternative basic education, due to lack of learning facilities, learning materials, trained teachers and funds. In addition, nomadic and semi nomadic lifestyles, poverty, gender inequality, just to name some, result in total exclusion of certain groups from any learning opportunity.
According to recent estimations, 75% of the adult population of Somaliland are illiterate. Worldwide, an estimated 800 million don't know how to read and write. The fact that approximately two thirds of these are women, makes the issue of illiteracy not just a violation of one of the most basic human rights, the right to education, but also an indicator for gender based discrimination.
Back to my first encounter with illiteracy two years ago. I was shocked, sad and angry when I first got to know about the real scale of the problem. I couldn't understand how 75% of the Somaliland population, or 800 million adults around the world can be deprived of such a basic right without anybody really bothering about it.
Two years down the line, I have come across many initiatives in Somaliland, but also worldwide, which indeed demonstrate efforts and will to keep youth and adult literacy on the agenda. In Somaliland, numerous local Non Governmental Organizations are offering courses with whatever means they can get, and a few International NGOs and UN agencies, including Caritas the one I am working for, do their best to support these local NGOS in bringing literacy to the people of Somaliland. Only few days ago, I have had a chance to visit some of our local partner NGOS that offers literacy courses in the town of Burao, and it was amazing and touching to see the engagement with which the female course participants followed the lesson. They were of all age groups, carrying with them a diversity of individual life stories, but still having one thing in common: the desire to know how to read and write. Although each of them might have her own individual reasons for attending a literacy course, there are also some benefits of literacy commonly agreed upon: for one, literacy is vital to reduce gender inequality, since it increases women's participation in public and private spheres. Literacy is also crucial for the deveopment and education of children, in particular the girl child, since literate parents raise healthier and more literate children. Literacy is also an important factor in the campaign against the spread of HIV AIDS. Literacy is as much a human right as it is the basis for a democratic and economic development of countries.
In Somaliland, the task to make literacy accessible to everybody seems to huge to be even thought of. And yet, I can see at least one factor which should be encouraging enough to tackle the issue: the demand and wish expressed in all corners of the country, by all people of the country to get access to courses. People, it seems, don't need to be made aware about the benefits of literacy, or aware about the universal right to education. They long for it. Some few books and a blackboard is in many cases sufficient to get a course started.
I really do belief that with joint efforts, and contribution from all sides, from the community, local NGOs, international NGOs, Government and donors, illiteracy will one day, soon, be filed in the "issues of the past" file.
