Stories

Farrell Hunter, Country Director of DVV International in South Africa, talks about a workshop which reflected on the role and challenges of community non-formal and popular education in the broader education context in South Africa.

Despite many efforts which are underway to ensure quality education and to open access to literacy education, the illiteracy rate in Afghanistan is still high. According to optimistic estimations the illiteracy rate in Afghanistan is 62 % and is considered among the highest in the world. DVV International and partners like ANAFAE fight to improve the situation, but they require more attention and support.

A shipment of 40 boxes with books on adult education started its journey from the University of British Columbia (UBC, Vancouver, Canada) to the DVV International East/Horn of Africa Regional Office in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). The books are from the Coolie Verner Memorial Reading Room (CVMRR – Coolie Verner was the first Professor in the Department of Adult Education at UBC), which is a specialised library, affiliated with the Department of Educational Studies at UBC.

The closure of the CVMRR comes at a point when other libraries and information services in Canada also had to close down due to the deep funding cuts in adult learning and literacy research over the past few years that basically dismantled the Canadian literacy support infrastructure.

I am looking out a window. I see my childhood. I see a lake.

It is summer in Finland, and I am sitting in the summer cottage my grandmother bought in the 1950ies. I am editing the next edition of Adult Education and Development. I read texts from all over the world. They tell stories about what it means to be a citizen on this planet. They are touching, personal, angry. They are calls for action, testimonials, everyday insights. They are engaged, constructive, analytical.