A recent trip to Puerto Princesa City served as an opportunity to promote literacy among children in the western frontier of the country. The training program on campus paper writing was a project of the Rotary Club of Puerto Princesa as part of its literacy campaign, a priority thrust of the service-oriented civic organization.

The Puerto Princesa experience came to mind as I was reading about this week’s UNESCO-led celebration of International Literacy Day. I came to realize that despite what seems like a deteriorating situation in Philippine basic education, we, in the Philippines remain blessed because of our access to schools while more than 700 million people in the world – in their adult ages — cannot still read and write.

We are also blessed because our society encourages the empowerment of everyone – males and females alike, unlike in many parts of the world, where women are deprived of this right to education. The figures stare on our face: one-fifth of the world’s adults have remained not literate and of these people, 75 percent are females.

I am glad that I was part of that literacy training in Palawan as I have had the opportunity to do so for campus writers of the region and other islands. The Rotary literacy program in Puerto Princesa, initiated by Club President Eric Yayen, is something that can be replicated and sustained by service organizations, particularly by  Rotary whose promotion of truth, goodwill, friendship and community welfare and benefits find substance and meaning in helping young people attain word power when they know how to  write and read better.

The celebration brought to mind, too, a trip to a town in La Union years back where I had the opportunity to do some social research for a non-governmental organization that was extending services in that part of the country. For a week or so, I had to go down to Agoo, an hour-ride from Baguio, where I was temporarily based, to conduct my study. While I have not been to Agoo lately, I have learned the development in the town has grown by leaps and bounds with the town, cited this week as one of the five global awardees of the UNESCO International Literacy Prize, a recognition for innovative literacy programs.

Agoo will be honored as second placer  in the UNESCO Confucius Price for Literacy for its continuing education and life-long learning program. The thrust makes available wide opportunities  for training and education to the entire population of the town where illiteracy has been eradicated and sustaining programs have been set up all 49  barangays of the town.

StarLife takes you to a trip to Taiwan courtesy of our contributor, Fe Legaspi-Remitio, who has been faithful in sharing with us the attractions of places – near and far – she has been to. We encourage other readers to do so to help our readers who may have not journey opportunities to see the world from their living room couches or coffee or juice tables every Sunday.