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SIL International
Partners in Language Development

By facilitating language-based development, SIL International serves the peoples of the world through research, translation, and literacy.

Facts about Illiteracy

  • The world contains approximately one billion nonliterate adults.
  • Approximately 30-50 million nonliterates are added each year.
  • Twenty-seven percent of adults are nonliterate.
  • Developing nations contain 98% of nonliterates.
  • Women are two-thirds of all nonliterates.

Read about SIL's literacy efforts


   

What's New

More What’s New

Andika literacy font updated

Andika—which means Write! in Swahili—is a sans serif font developed especially for literacy use. The focus of this font is on clear, easy-to-perceive letterforms that new readers can readily distinguish.