IIMSAM Official Dr. Naseer Homoud call upon the world government to unite on the cause of literacy

Sept. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- Doha

IIMSAM Middle East Director & Goodwill Ambassador Dr. Naseer Homoud’ message on International Day of Literacy.

Marking International Day on Literacy, Dr. Naseer S Homoud, Goodwill Ambassador and Director of Middle East office for the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina against Malnutrition (IIMSAM), the Permanent Observer to the United Nations Economic and Social Council urged for stepped-up efforts to close the education gap, which he terms as “a deep-seated inequality in our contemporary globalizing world.”
“Achieving universal literacy is everybody’s concern and efforts must be channelized for the wider international community, the United Nations family, civil society, the private sector, local groups and individuals,” Dr. Homoud says in his message on the Day, which is commemorated each year on 8 September.

The alarming situation wherein world literacy rates are yet to reach to its form and substance is something which is going in direct contradiction with the pace of development and modernization, which cannot be termed as sustained amid prevailing inequality among the nations of the world. Dr Homoud calls this state of affairs an “insult to individual human dignity” which imperils the future well-being of humankind. The literacy gap, he says, is especially unjust because it has a crash in our potential to link all other inequalities – among men and women, among well-off and underprivileged, between the haves and have-nots in this present-day information technology age, among those who stand to expand from globalization and those who are disqualified from its benefits.”
“Literacy skills are important for self esteem and coping with the challenges of day to day life,” Dr. Homoud said. “Literacy is about participating in communities, helping others and building one’s future. It is the ability to read, write, calculate, speak and understand, as well as communicate with others.” Some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

According to UNESCO’s "Global Monitoring Report on Education for All (2008)" South and West Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%), and the Arab States (62.7%). Countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8%), Niger (14.4%) and Mali (19%). The report shows a clear connection between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty, and between illiteracy and prejudice against women. Dr Homoud while showing his dissatisfaction over this gap said “without curbing the problems pertaining to literacy, the dream of civilized world cannot be achieved,” it is not a compulsory theory that everyone who attains education will become a qualified professional but one who attains basic education at least would develop himself/herself to a human from a man or woman, there is no denying of the fact that education transforms man into human in this contemporary civilization.


Education levels in the world have improved steadily and consistently in the past ten years but this growth is yet curtailed if we compare the illiteracy rates worldwide particularly among under privileged class, Dr. Homoud says International Literacy Day is an opportunity to pledge to overcome this hazard “Increasing literacy levels mean more people will be able to take advantage of employment opportunities emerging from the diversified fields,” he said.


International Literacy Day is also a time to focus on the challenges faced in ensuring that literacy standards and education levels in the world continues to improve.
“I encourage everyone to take the time today to reflect on the link between economic well-being and literacy,” Dr. Homoud said. “By working together to promote literacy we can make the whole world a ‘have’ territory with no boundaries with healthy, educated people making responsible personal choices for themselves and their families.
Dr Homoud said that in so called third world countries, children are not being able to go schools due to their poverty ridden situation and not being able to survive due to malnutrition and hunger problems. It is not an easy task to envisage the circumstances wherein children are not being able to feed themselves and in case where the food supply is present, the quality of nutritional aspect is too low. He further said “how we can imagine sending a child to school if his family is being unable to feed him”. Among the countries which have been identified with lowest literacy rates, major chunk is from the areas where undernourishment is a major problem. While advocating the usage of Spirulina, Dr. Naseer said that “if we are able to supply basic nutrition to the children who are struggling for their basic survival, ultimately we can do something substantial so that the children after gaining nutritional food like Spirulina can visit to schools.

IIMSAM is leaving no stones unturned in achieving the UN Millennium Goals under able guidance of His Excellency Ambassador Remigio M. Maradona Director General of the IIMSAM. Dr Naseer while appreciating the efforts of IIMSAM in accomplishing UN Millennium Goals urged the government of nations to show solidarity on the cause so that every child is being supplied by food so he/she can attain education.