SIL International Media Release
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SIL Celebrates International
Literacy Day
On September 7, 2001, SIL International joined with 20 other
participating organizations of the International Literacy Network
(ILN) to celebrate International Literacy Day.
The
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
first established International Literacy Day in 1968 to highlight literacy
issues that span the globe. The celebration this year in Washington, DC
was hosted by the Smithsonian Institute, where SIL participated with an
exhibit in the Ripley Center. Later that day SIL hosted a Leadership Luncheon,
specifically for the purpose of promoting discussion on the effectiveness
and impact of the network. On-going partnerships within the International
Literacy Network allows SIL and other member organizations to work
together to have more impact than any one of them could have alone in
fight against illiteracy.
On
September 8, SIL was also involved in the First Lady's Book Festival at
the Capitol building with an exhibit in the popular Great Ideas pavilion.
The focus of this exhibit was "Literacy in Languages of the World." It
highlighted the Ethnologue: Languages
of the World, volumes that describe 6,800 languages, in addition
to other literacy-related print and CD resources produced and made available
by SIL. One popular activity through the exhibit gave young people an
opportunity to practice writing their names in hieroglyphics. Organizers
of the event estimated that between 20,000—25,000 people attended
the national book festival this year.
Literacy
is a key that unlocks a whole new world of information and communication.
Yet even in the twenty-first century, illiteracy remains a serious issue
around the world, particularly in developing countries. The numbers are
staggering—one billion illiterates in the world, two-thirds of these
are women, and one-half of world illiterates are speakers of lesser-known
languages. 
SIL
is working in over 1,000 of those languages. SIL members are committed
to the endangered languages and marginalized minority peoples of the world.
They partner with national colleagues and work along with local communities
in: linguistic analysis, orthography design (in the cases where an alphabet
does not already exist), literacy programs and materials development,
and literature production.
Article contributed by Pat Kelley, International Literacy Coordinator, SIL International