World Literacy of Canada (WLC) was founded in 1955 by a
small group of Canadians concerned with supporting literacy initiatives
through education and community development programs. For the past
50 years, WLC has supported literacy programs in Canada, Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean. Our primary focus has always been
India, a country that faces a severe literacy crisis, and our current
overseas programs are located in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Illiteracy
is strongly linked to poverty, poor health, disadvantage and exclusion,
and education is not an issue that stands in isolation from the many
challenges that face the poor. As a result, WLC has developed a highly
integrated approach to literacy that includes community programs that
focus on women's rights, social justice, health care, access to public
services, advocacy, and community building. The main priorities of
the WLC Program are--
1.
Adult Literacy Program
In South Asia, and particularly in Uttar Pradesh, the Indian
state in which WLC is focused, literacy rates are extremely
low. In UP, according to census 2001 survey, the literacy rate
for males was 68.8% and among adult women, the literacy rate
was only 42.98%. In India the overall literacy rate is 64.8
% (Male: 75.3%; Female: 53.7%). Historically, a variety of factors
have been found to be responsible for poor female literacy rates:
gender based inequality, social discrimination and economic
exploitation, occupation of girl child in domestic chores, low
enrolment of girls in schools low retention rates and high dropout
rates.WLC provides functional literacy classes to women and
older girls in communities
where poverty is high and literacy rates are low. Women of all
ages join our programs - some are unmarried teenagers who never
attended schools, many are the mothers of young children, and
some are in their 70s and only now learning to read. Women receive
instruction in Hindi reading and writing and basic mathematics
as they work through a set of 4 government-provided readers
which deal with material of interest to adult women, including
everything from stories about famous, strong Indian women to
information on family planning. read
more........
2.
Children's Education Program
In Canada, almost 100% of children complete grade 5. In India,
only 62% of children reach grade 5, and one-third of all children
aged 6 to 14 do not attend school. This equal to 23 million
boys and 36 million girls double the entire population of Canada.
The state of public education in India is in crisis and many
of the communities where we work do not have adequate primary
schools. In addition to ongoing pressure to improve the public
school system, the WLC program provides children with modest
access to daily learning, either to complement their existing
schooling or in its absence, as a measure to prepare them for
formal schooling.Early childhood development, better parenting
and child education are the major components of WLC's children's
program. Our children's programs are started where WLC has established
Mahila Mandals and Adult Literacy centres. At every centre,
a Balwadi Kendra (Children's Program) is established which generally
constitutes 25 kids. Presently 62 Balwadi Kendras are running
either through WLC directly or our rural NGO partners in 9 districts
of eastern UP where over 1600 kids are receiving informal education.read
more........
3.
Health Awareness Program
Although World literacy of Canada is not a health organization,
health issues are very relevant to our other areas of focus.
Education, women's empowerment and income generation are impossible
without attention to beneficiary health and in most of the communities
where we work, poor access to health care, a lack of health
information, and a neglect of women's health are endemic. As
a result, since 1997 we have incorporated a small health program
into our programming.
WLC first began integrated health care into our project in a
small way during our 1997 - 2000 program after receiving repeated
requests from our NGO partners and the Mahila Mandals (women's
groups) for more health services and health education at the
grassroots level. Many of the villages had no access to a first
aid clinic within a 10 kilometre distance. Given that most villagers
would have to walk or cycle to a clinic, the distance was even
more of an obstacle. Over the past few years WLC has integrated
a modest community health component in all of our projects in
India that involves both health education and awareness raising,
and some basic health care services; every project is set up
to provide family check-ups and first aid. read
more........
4.
Social Enterprise Program
The term 'Social Enterprise' implies a linking of business ventures
to achieving social good. In the case of WLC, our 'social enterprise'
program consists of assisting poor women in developing new methods
of income generation, especially through small business ventures,
in order to improve the income and quality of life of their
families. We provide beneficiary women with skill training (particularly
in sewing, although we are now expanding to other areas), instruct
them in small business management, and provide them with the
means of accessing small loans for start up capital. This is
particularly important, as it can be extremely difficult for
poor women who lack collateral to obtain loans except from private
money lenders who charge massive interest rates. Women from
our program have used these small WLC-facilitated loans to buy
seeds for crops, purchase sewing machines, invest in cows for
milk production, and acquire the basic materials for a dry goods
store and more. This means of aid allows poor women a new power
over their own financial circumstances, and it has brought many
of our beneficiaries remarkable success. read
more........
5.
Advocacy Program
World Literacy subscribes to the idea that work done to aid
individual beneficiaries should be accompanied by work to change
the underlying social, economic, environmental and political
circumstances which create beneficiaries' hardship in the first
place. The advocacy program works to actively engage targeted
communities on issues of human rights, women's empowerment,
literacy, democratization and good governance. Our goal is to
help these people understand the larger issues that affect the
quality of their lives, and to enable them to make their voices
heard for change.
At the core of our advocacy program, and in fact at the core
of all of our programming, are the Mahila Mandals (women's groups).
These are groups of adult women whose foundation WLC facilitates
prior to engaging in any other programming in a community. The
Mahila Mandals are a venue for women to talk about and support
each other on the problems that arise in daily life such as
family health, economic problems, domestic violence and children's
education. WLC then encourages these women to take collective
political and social action in their communities: for example,
to pressure the local government for legally entitled rights
and services such as widows pensions, old age pensions, road
repairs, electricity, water, latrine repair and installation,
compensation for housing destroyed by floods, voting registration
without intimidation and above all, women's rights. Recently,
a Mahlia Mandal in one of our communities has been fighting
to have a neighbourhood bar closed which is contributing to
alcoholism in the community. read
more........
World Literacy of Canada (WLC) was founded in 1955 by a
small group of Canadians concerned with supporting literacy initiatives
through education and community development programs. For the past
50 years, WLC has supported literacy programs in Canada, Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean. Our primary focus has always been
India, a country that faces a severe literacy crisis, and our current
overseas programs are located in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Illiteracy
is strongly linked to poverty, poor health, disadvantage and exclusion,
and education is not an issue that stands in isolation from the many
challenges that face the poor. As a result, WLC has developed a highly
integrated approach to literacy that includes community programs that
focus on women's rights, social justice, health care, access to public
services, advocacy, and community building. The main priorities of
the WLC Program are-- 
3.
Health Awareness Program 
4.
Social Enterprise Program
5.
Advocacy Program