How Beyond Borders Supports Literacy Training

Beyond Borders supports literacy training and basic education for both unschooled youth and adults.

Adult participants have rarely had any formal schooling, but most adults can become functionally literate in one to two years. Adult classes average 15 students.

Learn more about our child literacy program.

Literacy centers for children offer a four year program with a fifth year of vocational training at some centers. Classes for children average 22 students. These children are from families simply too poor to place their children in traditional schools. Nearly half the children no longer live with their families but have been given up to work as domestic laborers in the homes of other Haitian families. These children are truly the poorest of the poor.

All centers employ local Haitian community members as teachers. Committees made up of people from the church and community recruit teachers, seek out children in need of an education and provide classroom space and furniture. In addition to supplying students with books and school materials, Beyond Borders helps these instructors develop their teaching and community organizing skills, equipping them for lifelong service to their churches and communities.