International Literacy Day – September 8, 2020

Literacy means different things for different people. For Azita, an immigrant from Iran, literacy means a path to independence.

Azita has lived in the US for 15 years and has been studying with LVGW for five years. Before she came to LVGW, Azita was taking classes at a community college and said, “I didn’t talk that much. I would just leave class and come back. After that, I didn’t talk with anyone, just came home and talked to my family in Farsi. I found out I couldn’t follow my teacher’s lecture. In the next sentence, I was trying to figure out what she said in the previous sentence. I struggled a lot.”

Now, Azita says that she surprises herself with how much English she knows. “Sometimes when I talk, I think, ‘how did this word come out of my mouth?’ My brain just learned it!” Through the support of tutors, teachers, and staff at LVGW, coupled with more serious independent study, Azita has begun to learn more quickly. She loves to read, and her favorite book right now is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

With continued support from the LVGW community, Azita is following the path to independence through literacy.

Today, on International Literacy Day, we invite you to celebrate with us and help to increase literacy for hundreds of people like Azita.