Big Issue founder John Bird joined forces with model and actress Lily Cole yesterday in a global call to tackle illiteracy.
Big Issue founder Baron Bird – who will make his maiden speech in the House of Lords later this week – joined Cole in launching a Project Literacy campaign called the Alphabet of Illiteracy at the House of Commons. He called for a need for “social literacy” to be acknowledged, and illustrated his own journey from illiteracy, showing how learning to read and write changed the trajectory of his life.
It’s estimated that around one in ten people worldwide are unable to read or write. Nearly two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. Campaigners argue that these individuals are at significantly more risk of being affected by major social issues such as illness and crime.
The campaign lists a number of social issues that could be alleviated by improving literacy, such as child marriage, malnutrition, gender inequality and female genital mutilation. H in the alphabet stands for ‘homelessness’, highlighting how lack of literacy is tied into the issue of homelessness.
Project Literarcy is urging people to sign a petition calling on the UN to take literacy more seriously, saying it is the root cause of almost every major problem humanity faces.
