Unesco prizes recognise literacy projects

Unesco's international literacy prizes for 2003 pay tribute to programmes in Zambia and South Africa. These winners of the Noma Prize and the King Sejong Literacy Prize were chosen by a jury that met at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from May 20 to 23. The awards recognise exceptional work in the fight against illiteracy.

The winners, picked from among 26 candidates, will be presented with their prizes in their own countries on International Literacy Day, September 8 2003. The occasion will also be marked at Unesco Headquarters with a ceremony and workshops to discuss the progress of literacy in the world.

The Noma Prize** has been won by Zambia;s Panuka Trust, which since 1997 has enabled girls and women (between 15 and 75) in the country's rural south to learn to read, write and earn a living more easily. The trust hopes to make 85 percent of the area's women literate by 2020.

An Honourable Mention goes to the sustainable development project of Morocco;s Ribat Al Fath association, which since 1990 has helped women to become self-reliant through literacy courses totalling 200 hours per person. Having gained literacy skills, these women manage their lives better and are able to play a more important role in society. The project also enables marginalized or excluded children to take part in community life.

One of the two King Sejong Literacy Prizes*** has been awarded to the Tembaletu Community Education Centre in South Africa. The Tembaletu Centre is honoured for its programme of training schoolteachers and basic literacy instructors both in mother tongues and in English. The programme, which has so far benefited 500 people (two-thirds of them women), promotes on human rights, development and democracy.

The jury also admired the work of the Nsamizi Training Institute of Social Development in Uganda, without awarding it prizes or Honourable Mention.The Nsamizi Institute targets Uganda's 6.9 million illiterates (5.5 million of them women) by training students, through two-year courses or by distance learning, to set up literacy programmes for communities that want them.

** The $15,000 Noma Prize was set up in 1980 and is funded by the Japanese publisher Kodansha

***The $15,000 King Sejong Prizes were founded in 1989 and are funded by the Government of the Republic of Korea