Egyptian literacy projects showcased at UNESCO / IIE Conference

The conference is being held under the auspices of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, Chair of Qatar Foundation and UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education.

Leading education practitioners will gather to discuss innovative literacy projects, including two highly successful projects in Egypt.

The first, run by Caritas (www.caritasegypt.com) in Cairo and Giza, is a basic education program reaching 20,000 adults ever year, of whom 85% are women. Using village libraries, it focuses on teaching adults to handle issues of daily life, such as hygiene, nutrition and reproductive health, through a combination of literacy, dialogue and problem-solving.

The second focuses on youth illiteracy, particularly women, in urban areas by improving their literacy and computer skills. The young people take part in interactive computer games designed to improve their literacy skills at a network of computer kiosks established by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Dr. Abdulla Ali Al-Thani, Vice President for Education at Qatar Foundation, welcomed participation by Egypt, "The Qatar Foundation is delighted to be hosting this important regional conference on literacy in Arab States. Egypt's contribution, to the discussions and more importantly to efforts to combat illiteracy, is highly appreciated and we look forward to welcoming the participants to Doha."

Mr Salah Sabri Sebeh will be one of the speakers at the conference. He has been an active volunteer in literacy activities in Egypt since he received a degree in linguistics from Cairo University in 1967. He collaborated in the development of the Egyptian literacy curriculum known as "Learn to be Free". For the past 14 years, he has been the Director of the Basic Education Program for Adults at Caritas Egypt.

Dr. Ramadan Hamed Mohamed, Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt, will perform the role of moderator for part of the conference. He has experience in the design, supervision and analysis of large scale surveys on issues such as population, literacy, health, environment and investment.

Dr. Raafat Radwan, the Managing Director of Adult Education Agency in Egypt, will present at the conference. He is a member of the Shura Council (Upper House of Representatives) and a member of the Supreme Council for Policies in The National Democratic Party. He is also the co-chair of the G-8 Task Force as well as the co-chair of the Literacy working group.

Dr Laila Iskandar, who will also speak at the conference, was consultant to the Minister of Environment in Egypt and received the Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa in 1994. Her firm, Community and Institutional Development (CID), was awarded the Schwab Social Entrepreneurship Prize at the World Economic Forum for the Arab Region in 2006.

Dr Emad Tharwat Khalil, will also participate in the conference. His involvement with a number of local and regional groups working in literacy and adult education led him to join the Association of Upper Egypt for Education and Development, where he founded its renowned Parallel Schools. He is on the advisory committee of the Arab Education Forum at Harvard University's Contemporary Arab Studies Center.