SIL International Media Release

International Literacy Day Presentation
Melinda Awid, Translators Association of the Philippines

I bring greetings from the Philippines. First of all, I want to thank the organizers of the International Literacy Day 2000. Thank you for your commitment to make this celebration special and memorable. And for the rest of you, thank you for taking the time to celebrate with us here. I believe that what we see and hear today is a result of a common vision and passion to help eradicate illiteracy worldwide.

Having come from a small village in a remote town of Zamboanga, Southern Philippines, I really feel encouraged to see the world's advocates and supporters of literacy on this momentous event.

TAP Story

In order to combat illiteracy, we have organized ourselves into an association called the Translators Association of the Philippines. TAP came into being in 1983 as a result of the vision and passion of SIL, formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics. I was then one of its incorporators. To date, TAP has more than 40 members working in 16 indigenous people groups in the Philippines.

To fast track the literacy efforts, we closely work with the government. We provide training for Indigenous People and other NGOs who share our vision, which is the total human development. In order to achieve this, we live in the village, learn the local language and culture so we can introduce literacy in a culturally appropriate manner. In cooperation with the local people, we produce literature in the mother tongue. Then we teach people how to read and write and train local teachers, who later would be trained as trainers and supervisors of literacy classes.

Literacy Needs

Literacy efforts have been done during the past 10 years with inspiring results but given the limited resources we could only do so much and our task is far from over yet. We re looking at 2.4 million Filipinos who do not know how to read and write and there are 7.8 million who are still not functionally literate; unable to participate in decision-making and democratic processes that would improve the quality of their lives. Most of them belong to the indigenous people groups that we work with and the literacy rates in some of these groups are estimated to be as low as 30-60%. If these nearly 10 million people become literate, they would certainly make an impact on the future of my country.

End Result

From my experience, I can say that Literacy is a key that unlocks the door to progress, providing options to people I worked with to improve the quality of their lives.

One example was a woman in her late 40s named Dada Anaya. For sometime, Dada Anaya earned additional income aside from farming by buying live pigs. She would butcher the pig and sell the meat by going around the village and in the nearby logging camp. She couldn't write and therefore didn't have a record of the people who owed her and there were times when people cheated her.

When she became a Christian, she was elected church treasurer. That was when she wanted to fast track learning literacy and numeracy skills. Within three months, she was already keeping simple records and she is now engaged in buying and selling not only pigs but also chickens, bananas, and other root crops and delivers them to the city.

It is important that new readers achieve reading fluency and in one area we do this by integrating health with literacy. One Saturday afternoon, our topic was diarrhea and rehydration. The lesson included a demonstration on how to prepare the oral rehydration drink. One woman in her late 40s approached me with tears flowing down her cheeks. She said, "Why hadn't you come earlier? Had I learned this two years ago, my son would have not died." That woman had been taught that giving water to someone with diarrhea would result in death.

In Blenga, a group of Manobo women who have learned to read have become health promoters in the neighboring villages. They do this as part of their community service during Sunday afternoons. Several years ago, these women used to run away and hide whenever outsiders who were lowland settlers would come to their village but now that they have become literate and accredited by the government as village health workers, the outsiders now come to them for medicine and treatment instead. These women have developed a high self-esteem and this all started when they learned how to read and write.

I am committed to literacy because I believe that it provides an avenue whereby individuals attain human dignity.

The challenge seems overwhelming. However, this can be done as we work within the principle of convergence: government agencies, non-government organizations, private institutions, international, national and local individuals bonding together and forming partnerships.

Yes, you and I have a vital role to play and we would appreciate your partnership with us in this very worthy cause. Thank you very much!