International Literacy Day: turning new skills into practical change

On 8 September, International Literacy Day, Mothers’ Union celebrates more than 25 years of helping people develop literacy skills, confidence and knowledge to shape futures.

Literacy changes lives. Being able to read a Bible, understand a medicine packet, work out prices, support a child’s education or participate more fully in community life can bring greater confidence, independence, and opportunity.

For Mothers’ Union, literacy is about much more than learning to read and write. It is about dignity, participation and equipping people to make choices that shape their futures. For over 25 years, we have created and supported literacy programmes in communities around the world. Through participatory-based learning, people develop reading, writing and numeracy skills at the same time as discussing issues that affect everyday life. In this way, learning can lead directly to improved livelihoods, agriculture, savings, parenting and opportunities for women’s leadership.

In Burundi and South Sudan, more than 250,000 women and men have accessed literacy learning through Mothers’ Union over the past decade. Experience across countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands has demonstrated what community-based learning can achieve. To this end, our work continues to evolve, as we listen to communities and build on what we have learned. In Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the newly launched three-year pilot programme will be doing just that, building on more than two decades of experience. Local facilitators will be equipped to lead community learning sessions, connecting reading, writing and numeracy with everyday life. Our continuing work in South Sudan brings this approach to life, as Naomi Herbert, our Head of Programme Integration & Literacy, discovered on her recent visit.

Mobilising communities to start their own literacy groups in Torit and Rokon dioceses in South Sudan has given over 700 women and men something they desperately needed this year: hope. Climate change has hit their communities hard, halting the rains and leaving the crops they depend on scorched and unusable. Amid this hunger and uncertainty, their new literacy circles offer a genuine lifeline, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to diversify their incomes, build new livelihoods, and help their families survive.

International Literacy Day is both a celebration of what can be achieved and a reminder of why this work matters. Our experiences show what happens when communities are supported to learn together and local people are at the heart of the process. This International Literacy Day, we celebrate everyone who has learned, taught and supported literacy through Mothers’ Union as we look forward to the next chapter, opening doors to greater confidence, opportunity and hope.