Illiterate Islanders Receive Hope on World Literacy Day

Women’s Fellowship and Sunday School teams from Kolkata Diocese organized a World Literacy Day program on 8th September 2012. The event benefited island villagers in the district of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal.

The people in this remote area live in small mud houses and work hard for their living. A majority are illiterate, and parents are unable to educate their children due to poverty.

Seeing their difficult lives, Believers Church workers were sympathetic and decided to start literacy training in this place. They chose World Literacy Day to begin the work.

The Literacy Day celebration started at about 11 AM on 8th September. Rev. Fr. Bablu, Rev. Fr. Mritunjay, Pastor Saul and Women’s Fellowship members Sanchita and Shampa took part in the program. Several guests delivered speeches about World Literacy Day and encouraged the community members who had gathered.

28 illiterate women from different villages participated in the event and began further literacy training. The women received Bengali literacy books produced by Believers Church from the Women’s Fellowship team.

There were also 40 illiterate children from surrounding villages who attended the program. Pandap, Sunday school leader, taught them some action songs and played games with them. He spoke to them about the importance of education and their future.

Additionally, Pandap coached them thoroughly in the Bengali alphabet. Believers Church provided the children with study materials—pencils, sharpeners, notebooks and a Bengali book “Borna Porichoy” (To Know the Letters). The children were very happy and encouraged by this program and felt motivated to continue their education.

Because of the children’s eagerness to learn, the team decided to start a literacy center in the village that would offer classes thrice a week.

Believers Church is coming against the challenge of illiteracy all over South Asia with adult literacy classes in 12 major languages. Along with this, thousands of children are receiving education through literacy centers and the Bridge of Hope project.