"Awakening" to basic literacy skills in Iraq

In a decrepit classroom in the northern Iraqi city of Hawija, men in their 20s and 30s sit chanting the Arabic alphabet. Dressed in green military camouflage uniforms, they are part of the Awakening movement—Sunni tribesmen, some of them former insurgents, who now work alongside U.S. forces to secure their neighborhoods.

This literacy project is part of a pilot program set up by the U.S. military and designed to provide basic literacy skills to some 500 of these young men. It is run by local Iraqis, and classes began in mid-June. Read more of this story or listen to it on NPR's website.