Dear Rotarians
Happy International Literacy Day, 8 September!
Greetings to all Rotarians from members of the
International Reading Association / Rotary
International Partnerships Special Interest Group on
the occasion of International Literacy Day, 8
September, 2008.
Sponsored by UNESCO, International Literacy Day 2008
has as its theme, “Literacy is the best remedy”,
thereby emphasizing literacy and health’s
relationship to each other. Such a theme resonates
with President D.K. Lee’s dream to reduce child
mortality, with literacy being one tool for doing
so.
The International Reading Association / Rotary
International Partnership Special Interest Group is
a grass roots movement among literacy educators with
an interest in Rotary that aims to help make the
Rotary International – International Reading
Association Memorandum of Understanding (2002, 2005)
dreams real.
It does this by encouraging Reading / Literacy
Councils and Affiliates (such as the Australian
Literacy Educators’ Association, ALEA) to
collaborate with Rotary Clubs to develop, implement
and evaluate literacy projects at home and abroad.
See
www.reading.org/publications/reading_today/samples/RTY-0602-rotary.html
International Literacy Day is an occasion for
celebrating the fact that more than 4.8 billion
people in the world use their mother tongue literacy
effectively in their daily personal and community
lives. At the same time, it is an occasion for
reflection on, and planning for work yet to be done
in the world to achieve literacy for all, but
especially for women and girls in economically
developing nations.
For ideas about how to honour ILD, go to
www.reading.org/association/meetings/literacy_day.html.
For more information about the International Reading
Association / Rotary International Partnerships
Special Interest Group , go to
http://www.reading.org/association/about/sigs_irari.html
Nea Stewart-Dore, Chair, International Reading
Association Rotary International Partnerships
Special Interest Group and President of Yeppoon
Rotary Club:
56 Bright St.
Emu Park
Queensland
4710 Australia
+61-749-396-076 Email:
colnea@byterocky.net.au
..................................................................................................................................................................
The above message was forwarded to Australian Rotary
Clubs by PDGs Ian and Heather Yarker and is ideal to
be read at a Rotary Club meeting as close to
September 8th as practical
Ian Yarker
Literacy Zone Coordinator
Heather Yarker
General Coordinator
Health & Hunger Resource Group
yarkerhi@onthenet.com.au
+61 7 5510 8363
1
September 2008
