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Dhaka Ahsania Mission
of Bangladesh To Receive International Reading Association Literacy Award |
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NEWARK,
Delaware, USA–The 2003 International Reading Association Literacy
Award will be presented to the Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), of
Bangladesh, during the week of September 8. The award, which includes
a US$15,000 prize, is presented every year by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in
celebration of International Literacy Day. The International Reading
Association has supported the award since 1979.
“Supporting this award reflects the Association’s international mission of improving literacy worldwide,” according to International Reading Association President Lesley Mandel Morrow. “Our recognition of the Dhaka Ahsania Mission brings international attention to the importance of global literacy efforts.” The Dhaka Ahsania Mission is commended for its dedicated effort since 1980 in providing information education to more than 3.8 million of the country’s poorest people of all ages. The Mission aims to help children who are in greatest need to rejoin the formal education system. It also helps adults, especially women, to become more independent and expand income-generating activities to improve their standard of living. In addition, the program runs classes about protecting the environment, clean water, hygiene and health, drugs, and protecting the rights of women and children. The International Reading Association Literacy Award recognizes meritorious contributions to the struggle against illiteracy. Through their projects, recipients of the award have aided millions of people around the world in improving their literacy skills. The 2003 International Reading Association Literacy Award includes an honorable mention awarded to Fundación Alfabetizadora Laubach, based in Medellín, Colombia, for its work promoting basic education and literacy in Mexico, Panama, and Colombia. The foundation provides educational materials, and technical courses for young people and adults, rural women, and those excluded from formal education. The foundation started publishing a magazine in 1998, Revista Debate en Educatión de Adultos (Discussing Adult Education), which has just released its 15th issue. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization is the founder of International Literacy Day, and is responsible for appointing a jury to award international literacy prizes. The additional prizes that will be presented this year as part of the worldwide celebration of International Literacy Day include the US$15,000 Noma Literacy Prize, awarded to Zambia’s Panuka Trust, which since 1997 has enabled girls and women between the ages of 15 and 75 in the country’s rural south to learn to read and write and earn a living more easily. Two US$15,000 King Sejong Literacy Prizes will be awarded to the Tembaletu Community Education Center in South Africa and the International Reflect Circle (CIRAC), a network of 350 nongovernmental and governmental agencies in 60 countries. The Tembaletu Center is honored for its training program of schoolteachers and basic literacy instructors, both in mother tongues and in English. The program promotes human rights, development, and democracy and has benefited 500 people, of whom two-thirds are women. The CIRAC network of nongovernmental institutions was formed in 2000, and exchanges experiences, teaching and written materials in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The four winners, picked from among 26 candidates, will be presented with their prizes in their own countries on September 8. For more information on International Literacy Day and the International Literacy Day Awards, visit the Association’s website, www.reading.org. The International
Reading Association is an organization of reading professionals with
over 80,000 members in nearly 100 countries, dedicated to promoting
higher achievement levels in literacy, reading, and communication by
continually advancing the quality of instruction worldwide. |