September is Basic Education and Literacy Month

Posted by Franz Huber on Sep 16, 2023
In a moment, I'll run the risk of violating the Rotary principle of being non-political... But let me start off by quoting from a message by Past Rotary International President Bill Boyd, all the way back from 2007:
“Without literacy, all the written words we encounter every day – not just in books and newspapers, but in maps, labels, street signs, and billboards – are mysteries and roadblocks to full integration into society. For me, teaching someone to read is one of the most rewarding acts of service imaginable. All it costs is patience and time, and the rewards are incalculable. Like nothing else, literacy is a stepping stone away from poverty. It is a gift of self-reliance, one that can be freely passed on from generation to generation. Once there’s literacy in a family, it’s almost always there to stay, as literate parents raise literate children. Literate parents are also more likely to raise healthier children, whose horizons will stretch far beyond their own homes and villages. Literacy, quite literally, opens up a new world.” 
 
Back to the present: Try googling the terms “Adult literacy Australia”. I wish you luck to find anything more recent than an Inquiry commissioned by the Federal Government dated March 2022 titled “Don’t take it read”. It refers to a “corrigendum” tabled in Federal Parliament. Delving deeper into it, it mostly refers to data going back 10 years, to 2011-12… One suspects that the report found a comfortable place resting in somebody's filing cabinet and web server, and that the situation today is much the same: “One in five adult Australians have low literacy and/or numeracy”. This means that around three million adults do not have the skills to meet the demands of work and life.”
 
So, where do we come in as Rotarians, as members of the community? Quite simple:
  • volunteer to assist somebody who needs help
  • personally help somebody who needs help
  • refer somebody who needs help to a provider
Where to to go to? In Queensland, there are several bodies; here are just two of them:
Happy reading!