Overview
Since January 2010, the United Bible Societies’ (UBS) Global Literacy Coordination team have been working to help Bible Societies around the world meet the literacy needs of their people, by helping the non-literate Open The Bible. As well as continuing to fund two part-time Literacy Officers, the project aims to employ two additional part-time assistants to assist the French and Spanish speaking Bible Societies with their literacy projects.
With 20 literacy projects being proposed in 42 languages by 15 Bible Societies in Francophone Africa, there is an urgent need to extend dedicated services to the French speaking Bible Societies. The need in Latin America is also real and therefore dedicated service in Spanish to the Spanish speaking Bible Societies will be needed.
Statistics
- 20 literacy projects have been proposed by 15 Bible Societies in Francophone Africa (in 42 languages)
- Francophone Africa includes 20 countries. As an example, Niger has an adult literacy rate of only 15% and Guinea has a literacy rate of 25%
- In Latin America, nearly 35 million people over the age of 15 cannot read or write; an average of 10 %