CONTENTS:
Illiteracy
Literacy


ILLITERACY:
Illiteracy among Baluch high - Western Baluch of Turkmenistan
Indicators on Literacy
The Growth of Literacy in Saudi Arabia

LITERACY

THE SILENT DISABILITY: TODAY'S MISSION OPPORTUNITY

(Editor's Note) - To give you a bit of background on the situation regarding illiteracy today, let me give you a few excerpts from information from Robert Rice of Literacy Ministries International. (rricelmi@aol.com) Fax: 918-481-6623 --
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"…Today, the Bible is printed in languages spoken by 95% of world population. But 45% to 55% of the world can't read (SIL). Dr. Frank Laubach, father of the "each one teach one" literacy method wrote:

The most bruised people on this planet, the naked, the hungry, the fallen among thieves, the sick, the imprisoned in mind and soul, are the 1,200 million illiterates…At least a billion are virtual slaves…hungry, driven, diseased, afraid of educated men in this world and demons in the next."

Children comprise almost half of world population, 15 years of age and under. Inside and outside the 10/40 window non-reading children are the most needy and helpless in our world today. Their most important survival skill - ability to read and write - is often overlooked. With them, there are at least one billion illiterate adults. Formal education is not necessary for acquiring reading and writing skills. Such skills can be passed on to others be adults and even by children who have just acquired reading ability. Children have taught other children and even adults to read and write! The non-readers are more than open to the love of God and the Good News in Bible-content literacy primers…

Governments have been largely unsuccessful in developing literacy because volunteer tutors are essential for success. Statistics by UNESCO are typically padded. An April 17, 1995, TIME magazine report on Pakistan: "In a literacy rate officially pegged at 27%, people capable of writing more than just their name is probably only 10% 00 among females less than half that."

Programs embracing Christian motivation have been usually alone in providing literacy volunteers. Yet literacy remains a 'blind spot' in mission outreach today. Literacy alone has marginal value. But Christ-focused literacy programs are our most effective tool for reaching half of our world's peoples…

Lonna Dickerson, Ph.D,, Director of the Institute for Cross Cultural Training at the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College, wrote me: "I think you are exactly right about literacy needs being a blind spot in mission circles…Until mission agencies and individuals catch the vision for the crucial importance of this work and the need for many, many missionaries (and others) to be involved…" '

Robert calls this "The Silent Disability: Today's Mission Opportunity"
Now for the good news!…

We are grateful for the growing numbers of Wycliffe missionaries that have been developing ways that music can be an aid to literacy! One of the goals of many church planting teams among unreached peoples is to translate the Bible into the local language. In some areas where non-readers abound and the language is not yet written, music can also be used as an aid to lay the groundwork for a Bible translation project.

For those interested in potentially becoming involved in this aspect of missions and church planting, we would encourage you to order the following edition of EM News which is packed full of examples of how missionaries are using music as an aid to literacy in these days! Why can Scripture songs not be used to also enable us to reach out to our local ethnic and non-reading communities in our cities where we live in the Americans and Europe, as well? -