Illiteracy is considered one of the critical challenges in independent Timor-Leste. The Ministry of Education of Timor-Leste estimates adult literacy levels at below 50 percent, with women comprising more than half of the illiterate population. High illiteracy is a serious disadvantage that contributes to increased poverty.

USAID is supporting Timor-Leste’s government and civil society in its efforts to lower the number of illiterate people in the country. Through the Small Grants Program, USAID has provided necessary materials and technical support to the Ministry of Education and NGO partners to enable them to deliver high-quality, applicable literacy and numeracy training. Since the middle of 2005, the USAID grants have enabled the Xanana Gusmao Foundation, Crystal Foundation, Fundasaun Futuru ba Comunidade, and Timor Aid to deliver effective literacy and numeracy training to rural adolescents and adults. Thus far, the training has reached 44 villages in seven districts.

All in all, more than 960 people have been trained to date. Most of the trainees were women, as they were a priority target for the literacy and numeracy trainings to give them some educational and productive advantage in today’s society. The training modules, developed by the Ministry of Education and currently being field-tested across the country, are proving to be effective as they are simple, highly visual, and use examples from Timorese culture and daily life to help develop reading, writing, and basic math skills.

One of the trainees, Alianca Rodrigues [pictured above], 56, had this to say about the training: “Even if we are already old, it is good for us to learn how to read and write so that we can teach our grandchildren in turn.”

The next stop for the USAID Small Grants Program’s numeracy and literacy training this year will be economically active rural women who can then apply their skills to their small kiosks and businesses, or even their household budgets. The goal is to train more than 1,450 people who can potentially benefit from adequate literacy and numeracy skills and thus help build the foundation for future economic growth in rural communities.

A world of opportunities really opens up once a person learns the three R’s, the beneficiaries of the literacy and numeracy trainings all agree. A literate population can only mean good news to a country’s economy.