“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11)
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) tracks a variety of language data globally, including trends in literacy, linguistic diversity, and status of endangered languages.
Literacy Status:
According to UNESCO, in the fast-changing digital world, literacy must now be seen beyond the conventional reading, writing, and counting skills to include a means of identification, interpretation and communication. It is generally accepted that literacy empowers people to enhance their own socio-economic opportunities and enables them to achieve sustainable development of their communities. Unfortunately, globally, millions of adults and young people lack basic literacy skills. The gaps in literacy are particularly pronounced in rural communities and among adult women.
Endangerment Status:
Using intergenerational language transmission measures, UNESCO classifies the degree of endangerment of languages and observes that, globally, linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Such disappearance translates into the loss of significant cultural and intellectual heritage. Based on available information, actual and anecdotal, many minority Nigerian languages fall within the categories of vulnerable, definitely endangered, and severely endangered. The associated characteristics of these categories are summarized in the following table:
At Faith Works Language Initiative, we are motivated to develop initiatives to improve literacy levels within minority Nigerian communities. Working in partnership with church and community leaders, we develop needs-based literacy programs using translated Scripture content in the local language. We believe that a Bible-content based adult literacy initiative is an effective way to infuse the benefits of literacy into a community holistically.
Please GIVE NOW to support this important adult literacy work in minority Nigerian communities.
