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Wycliffe Bible Translators

Literacy

Develop reading materials and programmes, and pass on your skills to others.

Anée wept bitterly as she held her baby close to her chest. She was filled with a confusion of anger, grief and guilt. She was supposed to have taken the medicine herself and the baby would have benefitted through her milk. But she didn't understand the doctor's instructions, and she can't read, so she gave the medicine directly to her baby. Her newborn daughter died from a tragic and avoiable overdose. Information poverty kills... (more about Anee's story here)

Literacy can, quite literally, be the difference between life an death. Imagine English without books or any written information. Even in a post-literate age, that's scary. Millions of people all over the world have no one to help them write down their language, work with them to produce books, or set up programmes to teach adults and children to read. In almost all cases, it is the poor and marginalised who are denied access to literacy.

Literacy workshop, Bangolan CameroonWycliffe and its partner organisation, SIL International, are working alongside local communities to see this situation change, and offer specialist training in the various aspects of literacy work.

Might you have what it takes to be a literacy specialist? The following are all very valuable:

  • A desire to serve and help others.
  • Concern for the marginalised.
  • Commitment to being a team player.
  • Flexibility and tolerance.
  • A love of teaching and passing on skills to others.
  • Good communication skills.
  • The ability to organise and manage people.
  • Enthusiasm for learning new languages and cultures.
  • Talent in art or graphics.

You may have some of these skills and characteristics already. Others can be learnt over time. The training offered by the European Training Programme will give you the tools you need in linguistics, culture learning and literacy project management.

If want to go overseas to do literacy work, you may also want to consider enrolling on the 3-year MA Literacy Programme Development, which includes a 2-year overseas internship.