UNESCO IRA Literacy Prize honors program in China

The UNESCO IRA Literacy Prize for 2007 goes to the Community Education Administration Centre, Longsheng Ethnic Minority Autonomous County, People’s Republic of China. The Centre was established in a remote, rural, and mountainous area in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and serves a large ethnic population that has a high illiteracy rate, especially among women. For more than 10 years, the Centre has conducted, in addition to a literacy program for women, a program for the eradication of poverty through education, and a comprehensive system for rural education. The award, sponsored annually by the International Reading Association, carries a monetary prize of US$20,000, and will be presented by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in September as part of the celebration of International Literacy Day

IRA Executive Director Alan E. Farstrup represented IRA on the international jury, which selected five prize winners: the IRA award, two King Sejong Prizes (the Republic of Korea), and two Confucius Prizes (People’s Republic of China). An honorable mention was also awarded for the IRA prize. Jury members screened more than 30 nominations from throughout the world.

Other prizes awarded
Two UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prizes were awarded: to TOSTAN, especially the exemplary efforts made by the people of Ndiobėne Tallėne and Kouthiaba, a nongovernmental organization established in Senegal working mainly in rural regions particularly to provide literacy and life skills for women; and to the Children’s Book Project, a nongovernmental organization of the United Republic of Tanzania working to develop a strong reading culture through book production, training teachers as well as writers, publishers, and illustrators in order to strengthen the local book industry.

Two UNESCO Confucius Prizes for Literacy were awarded: to Reach Out and Read, a nongovernmental organization in the United States that works through health care infrastructures to reach mothers of disadvantaged and low-income families, especially in rural areas, whose children are most at risk of school failure, by offering literacy guidance to families of young children and promoting a reading culture; and to Family Re-orientation Education and Empowerment (FREE), a nongovernmental organization in Nigeria working to establish an effective network for community development through the establishment of community programmes for various groups, especially women and girls.

The honorable mention went to the Fundación Adunare, CODEF Adult Education Centre, a nongovernmental organization in Spain, for working to build a society that encourages critical thinking, integrates active and dynamic individuals, and forges relationships through dialog, for its program “Education of Disadvantaged Groups.”

Watch for further information about International Literacy Day, which traditionally is celebrated on or about September 8, in the October/November issue of Reading Today. If you are involved in an interesting celebration in your school, council, or community, please let us know at readingtoday@reading.org.