Becoming literate in life

On International #LiteracyDay we celebrate the young women in our CAMFED Association, who are returning to their local schools in rural Tanzania as Learner Guides, delivering a new literacy curriculum to reach 4,500 students over two years.

Learner Guides not only bring new e-reader technology into under resourced schools, they also bring valuable life skills and life lessons, learned the hard way.

One of these Learner Guides is Deborah. Once a school drop-out, living in extreme poverty with her hard-working single mother (a subsistence farmer) Deborah is now a literacy technology expert at the rural secondary school CAMFED supported her to attend.

In our latest blog, Deborah tells the heart-rending story of her life, and how she built resilience and enterprise through the support of her sisters in the CAMFED Association and her community. As a literacy Learner Guide and mentor, she not only helps students to read, learn, and stay in school in challenging circumstances, she also applies the life skills and lessons she has learned to ensure that vulnerable girls are protected, and can see a brighter future for themselves.

Read Deborah’s blog: ‘For me, literacy is about more than reading. It’s about how you deal with life.’

Deborah demonstrating the Worldreader e-reader, which students are using to access thousands of books, including English study guides