This activity was started as a result of a series of meetings, carried out during the  2018 mission. Groups of women from the four main villages of Abango asked to learn to read, write and count. The firm demand of women, confirmed by the high rate of illiteracy, especially among women, led us to act, convinced that literacy was a necessary condition for development. In March 2018, in a long, interesting meeting with women, we agreed in detail on the contents of the project and the methods of execution: lessons would take place in two small churches, twice a week, sixty women, led by Miriam, a young, passionate local teacher, would be paid to teach them to read, write (in English) and do arithmetic. These meetings are also an opportunity to propose periodic conversations with the midwives of the Obule Health Centre who come to talk about pregnancy, prenatal counselling, family planning, hygiene, nutrition and preventive medicine. 

Our contribution: The teaching materials and the stationery, but above all continuous encouragement. 

The cost: Three euros a year for each woman, the equivalent in our world of a beer or half a pack of cigarettes.

2018

Launching of the project

2019

The project is well underway, with two centres located in the local churches with about 70 young and older participants in each.

The interaction between the two groups is frequent: dances, songs, plays, all on the theme of literacy as an element of women’s emancipation. Finally, the formation of two keen football teams who meet/ clash frequently with each other, also accepting challenges with women’s teams in other locations. All this represents an added value to literacy, and helps to contribute to the difficult process of liberation/emancipation of women in a still profoundly patriarchal context.

The updates of the activities in the years to follow are reported in the  NEWS section