CAIRO: Illiteracy is the key obstacle to the development of a nation, agreed experts from the public and private sectors as well as civil society at the launch of Vodafone's literacy initiative Sunday. The initiative — launched by the Vodafone Egypt Foundation in cooperation with UNESCO, Life Makers Association and the General Authority for Literacy and Adult Education — aims to eradicate illiteracy within five years. In Egypt, an estimated 17 million people are illiterate. “Currently Egypt's illiteracy rate falls at 22 percent, however even though the rate is decreasing in comparison to other countries, the numbers are still close as the population is increasing,” said Minister of Education Ahmed Gamaleldin Moussa. “It's a shame on Egypt and highly contradictory that the land of civilization has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world,” he added. “Democracy, freedom and social justice will be achieved through education.” Mohamed El-Hamamsy, chairman of the board of trustees of the Vodafone Egypt Foundation, said, “The recent events have built a new spirit and we started thinking of how can we help the country, because it won't develop on its own, everyone has to contribute.” “As illiteracy is the main obstacle to development and primary cause of poverty, our vision of the literacy initiative is to bring together the experience of international bodies and NGOs in order to eradicate the illiteracy of 17 million people,” said corporate responsibility and foundation manager, Noha Saad. International expertise and technical support come from UNESCO while hands-on experience and volunteers will be from the Life Makers Association, the GAAE is the government partner and Vodafone the financier of the initiative. The highest illiteracy rates in Egypt are concentrated in Greater Cairo, Beheira, Assiut and Daqahliya, ages 15 and up most of which are females, said Ahmed Saeda, from the Life Makers Association, who noted a direct correlation between illiteracy and poverty. The program will run on a five-year plan, increasing its target literacy rate and number of volunteers along the way. Year one, 2011, will target educating 100,000 people through 2,500 volunteers; year two will aim to reach 2.7 million through 42,500 volunteers; year three will reach out to 3.4 million through 85,000 volunteers; and the fourth year will seek to educate 5.1 million so that by the fifth year they will have reached out to 17 million. The civil society partner in the initiative is the Life Makers Association. “We're coming out of a time in which the poor person has been subjected to injustice and the worst form of injustice is illiteracy ... [literacy] is the tool to fight ignorance, poverty and disease,” said Amr Khaled, founder of Life Makers Association and popular televangelist. “We just had a great revolution but we can't rest assured until Egypt is free from illiteracy,” he added. Khaled outlined four main components which are crucial in eradicating illiteracy; chief among which is the motivation of the illiterate person to be educated. “We have to move inside [people] the will to be educated,” he said. Second, volunteers, pointing out that “the revolution has showed us the will of the Egyptian youth…so far we've got 30,000 volunteers but we need another 30,000.” Third, advanced syllabi and technologies to aid the initiative, which will be UNESCO's role; and fourth, governmental support to turn it into a national illiteracy eradication campaign. UNESCO will bring in experts from abroad to share their experience in the field. “Illiteracy is among the priorities of UNESCO and interestingly the initiative comes during the UN Literacy Decade,” said Director of UNESCO's Regional Bureau, Tarek Shawki. The fourth goal of the Education for All initiative is “achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.” Shawki pointed out that Egypt has won the illiteracy award twice, in 1998 and in 2010. However, Egypt is one of the E9, which are the nine countries with the highest illiteracy rates. “We have to move and we have to move now especially after the revolution,” he said. “UNESCO's role will be offering the technical support, promoting the initiative, capacity building and evaluation.” “We don't want to only teach people reading, writing and arithmetic's, but a broader [sense of education] which is citizenship, democracy, how to be a responsible citizen to have more awareness,” he explained. Vodafone Egypt CEO Hatem Dowidar said, “Through literacy we are accomplishing two things, development and democracy as the citizen must be aware, must be able to read the electoral program of the different candidates and make a sound decision as well as practice their other rights.” Dowidar called on civil society members to join the initiative as they will need more and more volunteers every year. He also emphasized the crucial role of corporate social responsibility in the development of a country and how the government alone cannot strive to fix all social ailments. “We are kicking a cycle, as parents who are educated will make sure that their children too are educated so that even after the initiative ends in five years the chain working on eradicating illiteracy will continue,” said El-Hamamsy.
