Introducing the International President 2012-2013 - Lions Clubs ...

PRESIDENT'S THEMEExpanding Our Impact –Join The Reading ActionProgramEducation is the key to unlocking human potential. e acquisitionof skills and knowledge enables people to overcomepoverty, disease and other social ills. It empowerscommunities and gives individuals the confidence neededto shape their own future. e volunteer sector plays animportant role in providing education –viewed by manyexperts – including the United Nations – as one of the rootcauses of the cycle of poverty.As a former educator, married to a career teacher, I place ahigh value on education and I consider the ability to readas the foundation to an education. It is a gi Lions can giveto children and adults around the world.If you can read this sentence, then you are not only literate,you are considered highly literate. e basic definition of literacyworldwide is the ability to write your name, and readat a 10 year old level. Yet even using that basic definition,nearly one billion people worldwide are illiterate. at’s 26percent of the world’s adult population, or one out of fourpeople of reading age.But illiteracy isn’t a challenge just for developing regions.Even in the United States where I am from, one in sevenpersons can barely read a billboard sign or a recipe, whichmakes them functionally illiterate. Twenty-one million inmy own country can’t read at all.To reverse the situation we need to reach more children atrisk. According to the Gates Foundation, children developthe skills they need to succeed in school and life, duringtheir first five years. Many children lack basic language andbehavioral skills—such as knowing letters and colors, followingdirections, getting along with others, and exhibitingimpulse control. Unfortunately, when children start behind,they oen stay behind, leading to an achievement gapin elementary school and beyond.“e more youread, the morethings you’ll know.e more that youlearn, the moreplaces you’ll go.”Dr. Seuss, author of children’s books6LION, South Pacific Edition | July/August 2012 10