Addressing Illiteracy in Rural China
Although China's literacy rate hovers at 90 percent, the 10 percent who cannot read or write are mostly women, concentrated in the country’s rural villages and never given the opportunity to learn these skills. ActionAid is setting up programs to provide these women with the opportunity to learn to read and write.
"We aren’t asking much,” said Sun Xiaoju. “We just want to know how to read and write our names, our families' names, and some simple and useful words in our daily life... so that we can go out with confidence and dignity.”
Like many local woman in Shangping village in Hui County, Xiaoju is illiterate and could not write her own name.
Being the second of six children in her family, 43-year-old Xiaoju dropped out of school before she completed her first year of elementary school. Thirty years later, she remained illiterate.
Xiaoju is not alone; 80 percent of women in her village are unable to read or write.
"I feel that illiterate people are discriminated all over the place,” said Xiaoju.
Illiteracy impacts most aspects of Xiaoju’s daily life.
When her husband fell ill earlier this year, she took him to the county hospital while all her children were away working in the cities. Unable to find the right departments and offices due to illiteracy, she had to ask the hospital staff for help.The staff was rude and hesitant to help, she recalls, which made her angry and upset.
In March 2007, ActionAid came to Xiaoju's village: Shangping village in Hui County to initiate a road construction project. ActionAid held a meeting with the villagers in preparation for the project. During the meeting, Xiaoju was elected as a member of the management team and she became the group’s cashier. Although she did not understand what a cashier did, she believed in the project and was happy to contribute.
As part of her duties, Xiaoju was required to sign her name on a receipt but she was unable to write her name. She also was not able to write the amount of money in Chinese characters.
"From that moment, I am determined to learn how to write,” said Xiaoju. “I want to be a qualified cashier.”
Xiaoju's first Chinese teacher was ActionAid Hui DA coordinator, Liu Zhimin who taught her how to write a series of words every time she visited the village.
"At first, the women didn't understand why they had to write the numbers in Chinese character instead of Arabic numbers, which is very simple and convenient,” explained Zhimin. “I showed them the number '100,’ and asked them to change the number without deleting anything. When they came up with '1000,’ '400' and '700,' they realized the necessity and importance to write the number in Chinese characters.”
When a women’s activity center was established in Shangping village, Xiaoju also began to learn from literate women villagers.
"The elderly had mentioned that many years ago, the government organized evening adult schools teaching villagers how to read and write,” said Xiaoju. “But, there was no opportunity for us to learn until ActionAid helped us to set up a women's activity center.”
Actually, most men (including Xiaoju's husband) can write, but they often do not teach their wives how to do so.
"I'd rather learn with other women in the activity center,” said Xiaoju. "My husband doesn't think it's meaningful for women to learn how to write.”
With the establishment of the women's activity center, women villagers have the opportunity to learn how to read and write from qualified, patient teachers during the off-farm winter season.
"We aren't asking much,” said Xiaoju. “We just want to know how to read and write our names, our families' names, and some simple and useful words in our daily life, such as pig, cow, sheep, corn, wheat, man and women [and] numbers so that we can go out with confidence and dignity.”
Other villages are following suit and even expanding on ActionAid’s model. Along with the women activity centers, the Zhangjiachuan district has launched the “Little Sunshine Teacher” program. In Yanggou village, 10 school kids became the first 'little teachers' in the opening ceremony of their women's activity center. These little teachers teach their mothers what they have learned in school.
With the launch of the program, the school kids are supposed to become the “seed” in their families for illiteracy reduction.
"I have learned 10 Chinese characters from my daughter in the past month,” said Ma Jifeng, a single mother of five. Her daughter, Wang Yanyan, was just selected as one of the little teachers.
ActionAid has helped more than 10 villages establish women's activity centers in Hui County alone. Additional centers will be established in the future – allowing thousands of women like Xiaoju learn to read.
