Lettered Africa

Lettered Africa A simple, community-based, entrepreneurial solution to the problem of illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa is on the rise. Literacy is the key.

Over the past ten years, the economy of sub-Saharan Africa has grown by 51%. That’s over twice the worldwide average. The continent is now home to four of the ten fastest growing economies in the world. This is a time of unprecedented promise. Never before in the history of the continent have so many people had a real chance to escape poverty. Between 1990 and 2012, the portion of Africans living

in poverty fell from 56% to 43%. But with this great promise have come enormous challenges. Economic growth that is only accessible to some is economic growth that is not sustainable. Two in five African adults are cut off from opportunity by the simple fact that they cannot read. And illiteracy rates are even higher among women and in rural areas. The ability to read and write, particularly the ability to read and write in English, opens up an entire world of possibility. English literacy is challenging, and without good instruction, it is unattainable to most. Imagine if good instruction in written English were to become broadly available. Imagine a rigorous, phonetically based English literacy program designed specifically for Africans. Imagine tutors trained in this program who could then make a living by teaching members of their local communities how to read and write well in English. Imagine these tutors training other tutors to do the same, and the program spreading throughout the continent. This is what Lettered Africa promises to be: a simple, entrepreneurial, community-based approach to solving the problem of illiteracy in Africa. We believe that Africa’s greatest resource is its people. We do not know what great innovations will come from the next generation of Africans. We don’t know how they will transform their continent or the rest of the world. But we do know that the possibilities are limitless; their potential is simply waiting to be unlocked.

On this 2018, we're thinking about the strong women and girls of Africa. .Equality, even as an abstract idea, is not a...
03/08/2018

On this 2018, we're thinking about the strong women and girls of Africa. .
Equality, even as an abstract idea, is not a given in most of Africa. I once asked a roomful of adult students who was more important, men or women? They immediately answered immediately answered "men," and looked at me, confused as to why I would even ask a question with such an obvious answer. .
But because women and girls are chronically underestimated, that is where the largest opportunity for growth is. If we teach young women to read and to teach others to read, they not only have an avenue for personal growth, but also a means to support themselves -- and that can change the world.

It's Read Across America Day! What have you been ? . . .From to...
03/02/2018

It's Read Across America Day! What have you been ?

. . .

From top to bottom:
Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott

Marabel and the Book of Fate, Tracy Barrett

Inkheart, Cornelia Funke

Never Look an American in the Eye, Okey Ndibe

When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson

H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine Wamariya & Elizabeth Weil

Sentimental Tommy, J.M. Barrie

The Mind of John Knox, Richard G. Kyle

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, James C. Scott

Fish Girl, David Wiesner & Donna Jo Napoli

When Two Spines Align: Dressage Dynamics, Beth Baumert

02/26/2018

Poetry is considered as one of the most universal and important vehicles of human expression as it encapsulates various human experiences in an understandable and well-documented manner. Africa is rich in literature and poetry, and here’s a list of contemporary African poets that you should know:

"If you want to work on the core problem, it's early school literacy." - James L. Barksdale ...
02/14/2018

"If you want to work on the core problem, it's early school literacy." - James L. Barksdale

Flight
02/05/2018

Flight

"Literacy is the jump-off point from which all of life's successes take flight." -Lauri Fortino

"Literacy is the jump-off point from which all of life's successes take flight." -Lauri Fortino ...
02/05/2018

"Literacy is the jump-off point from which all of life's successes take flight." -Lauri Fortino

Helpful thoughts about doing good: t's not always "fast, dramatic changes made in the lives of morally unimpeachable peo...
02/01/2018

Helpful thoughts about doing good: t's not always "fast, dramatic changes made in the lives of morally unimpeachable people," but "helping is hard and...it is good...what someone needs out to be considered before and above what we think they deserve."

“The homeless woman whose baby was adopted by the policeman Trump honored at has a story, too. And it matters. https://t.co/pKYisy4Han”

02/01/2018

Retweeted Tish Harrison Warren ():

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Lord of the Rings,
(& my personal state of the union address)

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