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Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 80% of Mozambicans living on less than $2 a day. The illiteracy rate in Mozambique is staggering, 70% of the 17 million school age children are illiterate and less than 50% of the adults are illiterate. In order for Mozambicans to have an opportunity to rise out of poverty, a literate population is the key. Recently, through oil and natural gas discoveries on and off shore of Mozambique, higher paying jobs have become available. Due to a lack of literate workers, these jobs are being secured by foreigners, rather than the local population. Over the next 12 months, we have an unprecedented opportunity to impact 50,000 students, as the Ministry of Education has opened doors for us to train their teachers. We can accomplish this by providing workshops and training to 1160 Mozambican teachers, so they have the necessary tools to identify illiterate students and use appropriate methodology to increase literacy within 5 months. In addition, we can provide free community literacy classes to adults. In both of these projects, we provide the very first children's book (Mr. Rabbit and the Well) based on Mozambican folklore. This initiative was started as the result of a visit to Mozambique by Rotary members from La Jolla Sunrise and is operated by Manuel Jeque Franciso, a rotary club member in Beira, Mozambique. We plan to collaborate with other rotary clubs in order to successfully raise the full $15,000.
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