The
third Literacy Week in Brazil in São Paulo during the week
of 9 – 13 September 2002 provided the opportunity and venue for the celebrations
of InternationalAdult Learners Week 2002.
In a cooperative endeavour with Alfabetização Solidária
(Solidarity in Literacy), the UNESCO Office in Brasilia and UIE, a
number of coordinators of learning festivals from all world regions joined
the events of the Literacy Week and met in a workshop to discuss and share
experiences - and to get to know the faces behind the names of other network
members! Following a splendid opening ceremony with awards being presented
to the sponsors of the literacy work undertaken by Alfabetização
Solidária, an international congress on literacy work was the
main event of the festival. Have a closer look at impressions on the
Literacy
Week, and more information on the InternationalAdult
Learners Week meeting and the list of particpating
colleagues!
************
Background...
From 3 - 7 September 2001,
the second Literacy Week was organized in Brazil. It was opened
by an exhibition of photographs in Sao Paolo with the aim of attracting
the attention of the public, of potential learners as well as of funders
to the issue of illiteracy in Brazil. The week included a major international
congress on literacy whose main objective was to illustrate and exchange
the most up-to-date international research outcomes in literacy, and to
disseminate innovative partnership experiences in adult literacy carried
out in Brazil. Some 80 presentations on literacy work were offered to an
audience of academicians from Brazil and other countries. The second major
activity consisted in a one-day seminar on social development to which
mainly journalists and marketing specialists from private enterprises and
foundations had been invited in order to debate the responsibility of the
so-called "third sector" in financially supporting social work not funded
by the government.
All three events were set up in the city of Sao Paolo, and were organized and coordinated by the Brazilian non-governmental organization "Solidarity in Literacy", with support from the Ministry of Education and the UNESCO Office Brasilia. The main goal of the week was to raise the awareness of the public on the existence of illiteracy and its related problems in Brazil and, respectively, what programmes are applied to work in this area. The second goal, however, was to make potential learners join the literacy programmes and classes.
Contact:
Patricia Vicentini
International Relations Office
Solidary in Literacy ("Alfabetizacao Solidaria")
Brasilia
tel +5561-319-3872
patriciav@alfabetizacao.org.br
www.alfabetizacao.org.br