Pakistan: The Power of Family Literacy in Rural Pakistan
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Meena, back left, and her family host 15 readers in their family literacy class, including 5 members of her own family!
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Meena Yunus' father died when she was young and her family survived by picking cotton for the local land lord in rural Pakistan. Meena wanted to go to school but her family could not afford it. A sympathetic older brother saved his rupees and finally helped Meena go through primary school, but middle school remained out of reach. Still, Meena pushed herself to read on late into the evening by candlelight. It had never occurred to Meena that there might be a way to further her education and earn an income at the same time. Then in 2004, she learned about World Education's Family Reading Program. They were looking for literate women who could pass along their skills to others. Meena agreed to teach women and girls in her village in a six-month literacy course. "It was so rewarding," Meena says, "I was so excited to share what I have learned with others. Seeing others enjoy this light of literacy makes me happy."
Now 24, Meena is a Family Reading Program mentor to three reading groups near to her home. And her younger sister, Shenila, 14, has followed her example. Shenila has become more seriousness in her studies, and says, "I feel more comfortable expressing my opinions at home and I participate in more conversations in the community. I feel lighter now." Meena has recognized the change in Shenila's attitude, and her sister's confidence has increased.
World Education, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has worked in concert with six local partner organizations since 2004, and has helped over 100,000 women in some of Pakistan's most isolated areas learn to read, write, and perform basic math. These new skills open up a world of information, learning and vision for girls, women, and families in Pakistan's most traditional Islamic communities.
The Family Reading Program promotes literacy through home-based reading programs supported by local mentors—female volunteers who help women read together out loud. Each mentor also carries a "traveling library" made up of personal biographies and oral histories of the women themselves. One woman created a "book" of stories her illiterate mother shared during her childhood and called it "Stories My Mother Never Read to Me."
World Education extended the Family Reading Program by asking women students to each choose one reading buddy to teach. Shenila picked her 75-year old grandmother (Nani in Urdu). While Nani began to learn quickly, she found that learning to read and write was more difficult than she had thought. But Nani and Shenila worked at it whenever they found time—over morning tea, at lunch, after dinner. Now Nani keeps her books with her wherever she goes. When asked, Nani explains, "I always keep them with me so I can practice." And today, she holds a steady pencil and can write a letter to her granddaughters by herself. She says, "I am given this new gift from Allah. He has prepared my granddaughters to be my teachers."
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Reading buddies: Shenila, age 14, helps her grandmother Nani, age 75, study.
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Other family members are particularly curious about how Nani learned to do this at her age. She tells them, "It is never too late to learn if you are willing to work hard." Like Nani, other participants in the literacy programs have overcome obstacles to learn to read and write; today they are applying their skills and new-found confidence in ways that allow them to function more independently and improve their daily lives. Newly literate women can read medicine labels, pay utility bills and read signs in the local community. Some women from the literacy classes have also formed cooperative groups that have launched micro-enterprise activities that generate income for their families. Women say that they now recognize their own personal worth, and have the confidence to stand up for themselves in public and protest when local merchants try to cheat them at the market.
As a result of literacy awareness, all the adult women in Meena's family have joined the program, including her mother, who has a learning disability. When asked what she will do next, Meena replies, "I want to invite all the illiterate women on our street to join our Family Reading Program… the people can see the positive changes literacy brings to our homes and our families. We are smarter now. We are happier and more confident about our lives."
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