The State Budget Dining Rooms and the UASD announce project to identify illiterates

The State Budget Dining Rooms and the UASD announce project to identify illiterates
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 07/18/13

T he State Budget Dining Rooms (Comedores Económicos del Estado) and the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Campus Santiago, after signing an agreement, have joined the national commitment to eradicate illiteracy through an illiterate identification project that begins this Sunday, the 21^st of July.

“Our organization accepts the commitment made by President Danilo Medina, through the Quisqueya Learns with You (Quisqueya Aprende Contigo) Plan, to eradicate illiteracy by 2014. The project’s initial goal is to identify one thousand illiterate people during the first stage of the campaign in the municipality of Santiago,” Mr. Ramón Monchy Rodríguez, manager of the State Budget Dining Rooms, stated.

The official said that several people from the partner institutions of the State Budget Dining Rooms and the UASD-Santiago, faculty, staff and students, as well as community leaders, will visit some 21,000 households in 13 neighborhoods of this municipality, to identify those people who cannot read or write.

Rodríguez also considered the start of the project as positive because, during the first phase of the project, the expectations of community involvement have been exceeded. He also formally invited the entire society to join this cause, which will benefit the country as a whole.

According to the coordinators, the methodology to be applied during this project responds to a participatory process between the organizers and the communities, which entails a joint work dynamic during the various phases of the project. As a result, the community in the following neighborhoods will benefit: Expansión Cienfuegos, La Yaguita del Ejido, El Ingenio; Ens. Bermúdez, La Terracita, El Hoyo de Viuda, Rafey, El Hoyo de Bartola, Pastor, Yaguita de Pastor, Arroyo Hondo Abajo, Los Jazmines and Las Minas San José.

Genaro Rodríguez, Director of the UASD campus in Santiago, stressed the commitment of President Medina to strengthen education by investing 4% of the GDP in that line item. Furthermore, this project will free Dominicans of the great oppression that is brought by ignorance.

“We have decided to embrace this policy in order to contribute to the Quisqueya Learns With You National Literacy Plan, thus making it a common cause through which we can become a country completely free of illiteracy,” Rodríguez said.

In turn, Aura Toribio, Provincial Governor of Santiago and President of the Provincial Board of Literacy, explained that the schedule and goals of the ” Quisqueya Learns With You” Plan have been welcomed, and that such successful reception is an indication that satisfactory results will be yielded to benefit the society.

The objective of the project, which was implemented at the beginning of President Danilo Medina’s administration, is to provide literacy to 700,000 people within two years, thereby ensuring that the country is declared free of illiteracy by September 2014.

The campaign of identification of illiterates will go from 9 am until 4 pm and will include the participation of various sectors of Santiago.

Present during the event were: Mr. Genaro Rodríguez, Director of the Regional University Center of Santiago (CURSA-UASD); José Antonio Tatis, Project Coordinator; Anneri Miguelina Abreu, Technical Coordinator; Nelson Sánchez, Project Organization and Methods Coordinator, as well as community leaders of the city of Santiago.

Stages in which the implementation of this project has been structured:

First Phase: Agreement

The first step is to ensure that sponsoring organizations agree to provide community support for this project.

Second Phase: Identification of the areas to benefit from the project

After ensuring the community support, the project will identify the communities where it will be promoted in different stages, and it will end with the seventh phase: Implementation of the project and monitoring.

Given the different phases that must be completed before classes or training can start, the proposal is to have a six-month period as a platform for the implementation of the project.

Mapping

After selecting the areas where the project will take place, a mapping system will be required to ensure that each and every one of the people that were identified in the sixth phase of the project receives literacy. Likewise, once the implementation of the project is underway, that each of the groups can be monitored with ease.