literary With its Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the United Nations recognized that everyone has the right to a basic education. On September 8, 1967, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched International Literacy Day. It was followed in 2001, with the resolution that 2003-2012 be the Literacy Decade.

Today, organizations and policy makers around the world take the opportunities of a decade of literacy initiatives, and the publicity generated by International Literacy Day, to raise awareness of the continuing literacy needs at home and abroad.

The worldwide need is daunting—the International Reading Association estimates some 860 million adults cannot read or write, and 2/3 of these are women. More than 100 million children have no access to education. We have literacy needs here at home, too.

Some 13,000 adults in our area could benefit from increasing their reading ability and related life skills—learning to complete job applications, taking driver’s license tests, managing checking accounts, reviewing medicine labels, and helping their children with schoolwork.

Help is as close as your local library. Tri-State Literacy Council, located on the third floor of CCPL’s downtown Huntington location, helps adults by pairing them with trained volunteer tutors. Meeting weekly, the pair works on the adult learners’ personal reading goals.

For more information on becoming a literacy student or volunteer tutor, call 304-528-5700 or e-mail literacy@cabell.lib.wv.us.