Aboriginal Literacy

I caught this piece on aboriginal literacy on the news the other night. The Rotary Club of North Vancouver has been quietly funding libraries in First Nations communities around the province. The Write to Read (W2R) project was initiated by former Lt. Governor Steven Point who understood the urgent need for literacy in aboriginal communities. The Rotary Club is known for its literacy work in developing countries. Point apparently asked his friend, a retired police officer and Rotary Club member, what the group was doing for local literacy. There were no initiatives in their backyard so to speak, and so the literacy project was born. Point’s successor, Lt. Governor Judy Guichon has embraced it. Other funders and donors have stepped up to provide the books, modular buildings, computers, and other library amenities. A team of retired librarians catalogues all the books. The remote community of Oweekeno (Rivers Inlet), south of Bella Bella on the B.C. coast is the latest to receive a library. Others include Halalt Library near Chemainus, and the Yunesetin Library out of Williams Lake.