International Literacy Day, September 8th

International Literacy Day

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) annual supports an International Literacy Day. This year's theme for International Literacy Day is: Literacy Sustains Development. According to UNESCO statistics there are 781 million illiterate adults in the world who cannot read. That may seem like an impossible statistic, that there is very little that we can do to help, but there are so many ways that anyone can help.

Many libraries have adult literacy programs where you can volunteer to be a tutor, and often it requires just a small amount of time each week. The Provo City library sponsors a program called Project Read, which is an excellent program. (And sometimes you can find cool writing tips on their website.) Or, you can simply support reading activities, like those posted here.

The next thing to celebrate, after International Literacy Day of course, is Roald Dahl Day. I do have to be honest and say that Dahl is not my favorite author (I just am really, really creeped out by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and that has tainted everything but Matilda for me.) but I can support any day that celebrates an author.

After Dahl Day, we have Tolkien Week (September 16th-23rd), and the week after that is the American Library Association's Banned Book Week (September 23rd-30th).

See, we all have lots of opportunities to support literacy this month, so let's just do it!