UNESCO honours TCF’s Adult Literacy Programme ‘Aagahi’

The Citizens Foundation (TCF) has been announced as one of the winners of UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy 2017. This year’s theme was ‘Literacy in a digital world’ and Aagahi was recognised on the basis of its effectiveness and the successful use of technology and digital tools for monitoring and evaluation of the programme. 

The UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, established in 2005, with the support of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, gives special consideration to literacy amongst adults in rural areas and out-of-school youths, particularly girls, and women.

“TCF is extremely honoured to be receiving the award. It is an important milestone in the history of the organisation that will garner a lot of positive recognition for Pakistan. TCF-Aagahi now in its 12th year and has reached out to 62,864 women making them well-versed in Urdu reading, writing and basic numeracy skill. 

“It has made a massive positive impact on everyday lives of these women, from being able to read bus numbers at a busy bus stop, to calculating the change they are owed at the end of a shopping transaction, to writing a letter to their loved ones and most importantly, supporting their children in education. This gift of literacy has dramatically transformed their lives,” said TCF CEO Syed Asaad Ayub Ahmad in a press release issued on Thursday.

The Prize will be awarded at an official ceremony at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris on September 8 on International Literacy Day. The chairman of The Citizens Foundation, Ateed Riaz, will be receiving the award on behalf of the organisation.

The Citizens Foundation is a non-profit organisation set up in 1995 by a group of citizens who wanted to bring about positive social change through education. Today, the TCF is one of Pakistan’s leading organisations in the field of education for the less privileged. 

The TCF model is providing quality education to 204,000 children through 1,441 purpose-built school units located in the heart of Pakistan’s urban slums and rural communities.  The organisation ensures that girls represent nearly 50 per cent of overall student enrolment.

To magnify its impact, improve enrolment and quality of education, the TCF is now adopting government schools across Pakistan.