DID you know that over one billion adults in the world cannot read or write? For most people, the main cause of illiteracy is poverty. Even when education is free, many families cannot afford to send their children to school as they need them to work. In rural areas, schools are often too far away for many children to attend.
Illiterate people live in a confusing world. Imagine not being able to read a bus timetable or the instructions on a medicine bottle - planning the simplest journey or looking after sick children would be very difficult.
In Bangladesh, only 23 per cent, or one-quarter, of the population is literate. Those who are illiterate are often taken advantage of by money-lenders who can easily cheat those who cannot read a contract.
Illiterate people, usually among the poorest, also often find they are not able to claim the government services provided for the poor.
In Wahida's village, in Dinajpur District in northwest Bangladesh, a women's literacy group supported by Oxfam not only helped them to read and write, but also to change the whole face of their village.
The village had no well of its own and no basic sanitation. The women spent many hours collecting water from other villages.
