NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
September 8, 2005
For more information contact Emily Sollie at esollie@lwr.org or 410-230-2802.
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LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY:
Literacy Training in Burkina Faso Helps Women Fight for Rights
Baltimore, September 8, 2005 — Lutheran World Relief (LWR) calls for everyone to join them in celebrating International Literacy Day, a day meant to focus attention on worldwide literacy issues and needs. It is estimated that 860 million of the world's adults (nearly two-thirds of whom are women) do not know how to read or write and that more than 100 million children lack access to education.
In honor of International Literacy Day, LWR offers the following story of how literacy training in Burkina Faso has helped women fight for their rights:
In Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest nations, women continually struggle against a deeply ingrained culture of gender discrimination. In a country where 82 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, women find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy and oppression that hinders their full participation in society.
Few families send their daughters to school; if there is any money at all for school fees, it goes toward educating boys, since girls are often married off as young as 12 years old, usually to much older men. If a woman's husband dies, she is forced to marry his brother or cousin, and if she refuses, risks losing her children and being expelled from her village.
Without the ability to read and write, women cannot find jobs that might help contribute to their families' incomes and give them some decision-making power within the household or a way to care for their children on their own.
But Lutheran World Relief and local partner Promo-Femmes/Développment-Solidarité, a women's organization based in the capital city of Ouagadougou, have been working to change that dynamic and give women the means to take more control over their lives. PF/DS's goals of promoting women's rights, financial autonomy and participation in decision-making matched those of LWR, which approaches all of its development work with a goal of gender equity. The two organizations have partnered in Burkina Faso since 1993.
In the recent Women's Empowerment Project in the province of Boulkiemdé, LWR and PF/DS focused on two issues central to empowering women in rural areas: education and income generation.
The project, which was designed based on input from the communities, began with village-level meetings for both men and women to educate them about human rights. Community "mobilizers" with training from LWR and PF/DS held meetings to explain how both men and women have rights and responsibilities, and how women who are educated and able to earn incomes can help improve entire families' lives.
In five different literacy centers that LWR and PF/DS set up across the region, women and girls who had never been to school learned to read and write. The teachers used topics relevant to the women's lives, such as health, business management and environmental conservation to make the lessons doubly useful. With basic literacy skills, the women are better equipped to find jobs or start their own small businesses, as well as to learn more about their legal rights and take advantage of them to improve their situation.
For example, according to national law, when a woman's husband dies, she inherits his land. But few women were even aware of this right, and most lacked the legal marriage certificates needed to claim the property. People in rural villages had rarely applied for legal documentation of marriages, births and deaths, because it meant a 30-mile walk to the city hall.
In addition to educating women about their rights, PF/DS began arranging for officials to come to the villages to register marriages, births and deaths, so the villagers had the legal papers they need to take advantage of their rights. The organization also opened four "listening centers," where rural women can obtain legal advice and help with navigating the court system.
And it was literacy that made it possible for these Burkinabé women to conduct business, to understand legal documents, and to stand up for their rights.
"Before joining the literacy center, I was in the darkness," said Monique Kaboré, who learned to read and write under the Women's Empowerment Project. She has since started a small business that has helped her earn enough money to send her children to school - extending the benefits of her own education to the next generation.
This article first appeared in the August 29th, 2005 issue of Monday Developments, a journal published by InterAction.
WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945.
Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), individuals and parish groups in international relief, development, advocacy and social responsibility.
