Today CITW Zambezi, along with the rest of the world celebrates International Literacy Day, a day that is recognised annually to remind individuals, communities and societies of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights. In addition to this, the day is celebrated in order to advance the literacy agenda for a more literate and sustainable society.
CITW celebrates International Literacy Day as we are acutely aware that learning to read and write frees the mind and opens doors, offering children and adolescents a ladder out of poverty and a path to a promising future!
With this, CITW Zambezi took the opportunity to shine a spotlight on our Literacy Centre Project and give thanks to the incredible and life changing work that our literacy mentors are carrying out within the programme. To commemorate the day the CITW team, along with representatives from the Ministry of Education, Rotary Club of Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls Social Welfare Department and CITW Trustees, gathered at the Chinotimba Literacy Centre.
Speeches highlighted the importance of acknowledging and celebrating International Literacy Day, as well as how we at CITW are working towards advancing the literacy agenda in the areas where we operate. All those who attended the celebration were then give the opportunity to tour our centre and interact with our mentors to get a more in-depth understanding of the work that we are doing in the fight to improve literacy levels across Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Additionally, during the morning events, CITW also took the opportunity to introduce the next step within our Literacy Centre Project, explaining that as these Literacy Centres and are running efficiently and effectively, we have now begun the introduction of reading schemes into the literacy programme.
With grateful thanks to Round Table 7, CITW was able to obtain and handover an incredible 10 sets of a locally produced reading scheme known as The Sunrise Readers. This scheme is made up of a delightful series of high interest, carefully structured reading books to be used to teach reading in English, in the first years of a child’s education. The vocabulary accumulates gradually and the children are soon reading lively, interesting stories that are written and selected for their character-building emphasis.
Today CITW proudly celebrates our Literacy Centres, graciously gives thanks to our Literacy Mentors, and most importantly, acknowledges the role that we play in ensuring that as many students as possible are given a fair opportunity to learn, grow and fulfil their dreams.
Today a reader, tomorrow a leader!
