SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR – The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) is pleased to announce the arrival of an international delegation of volunteers in El Salvador to support the Ministry of Education’s National Literacy Program. The group is comprised of educators and university students that reside in the United States and Canada, including several of Salvadoran origins. They have come to accompany the literacy process in the country and to learn about the “Yes I Can” literacy model that is currently being implemented in El Salvador.

This is the third Literacy Brigade that CISPES has organized in recent years together with the Ministry of Education. The group will deliver a donation of reading glasses for elderly literacy program participants, along with other didactic materials. They will also accompany the literacy circle promoters and facilitators in the field, in diverse municipalities throughout the western and eastern regions of El Salvador. They will carry out door-to-door visits to promote the program, and also visit schools to encourage youth volunteers.

CISPES congratulates the Ministry of Education, the National Literacy Program and all the coordinators, promoters, facilitators and associates that participate in this inspiring and successful process of education, exchange and inclusion in El Salvador. “We consider it a great honor to be able to support this Program that represents a huge achievement and example of how a government can empower communities to remedy the exclusion that has existed for so long in the Salvadoran education system,” said Laura Embree-Lowry, CISPES Program Director and one of the delegation’s coordinators.

From the Ministry of Education of El Salvador: “With the National Literacy Program, from 2009 until the present, 201,982 Salvadorans have learned to read, write and do basic math with the support of 57,000 literacy volunteers, and 29 territories have been declared free of illiteracy. This year, the literacy circles began their functioning at the national level in April, with the goal of certifying 35,881 people as literate in 172 municipalities. In other projections, this year 23 municipalities are expected to be declared free from illiteracy.”

The delegation will be in the country for the remainder of July, and it will carry out its accompaniment in the municipalities of Santa Ana and Texistepeque in the department of Santa Ana; San Pedro Puxtla in the department of Ahuachapán; Chirilagua in the department of San Miguel; and San Dionisio in the department of Usulután. CISPES invites domestic and international media to join the group in its activities in the field.