Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and is essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.    Literacy is a significant and specific goal for Rotary.   It is so important that it is one of the 7 areas of focus for The Rotary Foundation and has the month of September dedicated to it.
Everyone has the right to learn to read, write and enjoy the power, pleasures and independence of being literate. For some the journey will be easy, for others it will take much hard work and unfortunately for approximately 18 percent of today’s world population, it will never happen.
 
Consider these facts; 
More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population. 
*  If all women completed primary education there would be 66% fewer maternal deaths,
*  A child born to a mother who can read is more likely to survive after the age of five,
*  If all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills,
171 million people would be lifted out of poverty, which would be an equivalent to a 12% cut in world poverty 
 
    Here is how you can help our Club to reduce this statistic:
    • Volunteer to collect books to donate to our 1,000 Stories Program.
    • Collect books for remote and disadvantaged schools around Australia and the world
    • Plan a project that focuses on, and rekindles a passion for literacy and numeracy, and promotes the ideal of a basic education for all
    • Contribute to one of the many worldwide literacy programs
    • Contribute funds to support existing literacy programs and projects
    • Promote reading to and with children every day.