A Rotary Awareness Month Message for All Rotarians
from President John Kenny’s Literacy Resource Group
LITERACY SERVICE PROJECTS - THE ROTARY CLUB’S OPPORTUNITIES AND OBLIGATIONS
( Club presidents are encouraged to share the main points of the following message with all members of their Rotary clubs. Do a Rotary Minute by covering the 10 numbered headings. Or take 5 minutes to cover the headings plus the sub-headings. Or make up your own version of this message)
All members of every Rotary club should be aware of the following nine facts about literacy service projects.
1. Literacy is one of five service project priority areas emphasized by RI
President John Kenny.
a. The other four are HEALTH AND HUNGER, PUBLIC IMAGE, WATER,
and YOUTH SERVICES
b. Each of these priority areas is serviced by a resource group whose members
are appointed by President John
c. The RI Literacy Resource Group has 60 appointed members including 52
Rotarians appointed to serve Rotary’s 52 zones. The name of your zone’s
literacy coordinator can be found at
d. The zone literacy coordinators work through their district counterparts to get
information to the clubs and to find out what clubs are doing.
2. Clubs can undertake service projects in any or all of three categories
a. BASIC LITERACY – The ability to read, write and compute.
b. FUNCTIONAL LITERACY – The knowledge and skills needed for an
adult to be a successful worker, citizen, parent and human being
c CHARACTER LITERACY – The knowledge and skills needed by an
adult to behave ethically in all aspects of life and to adopt Rotary’s
service above self view of a meaningful life.
3. Literacy projects are relevant to all of Rotary’s Four Avenues of Service
4. Vocational Service literacy projects provide youth and adults with tools
for ethical behavior, meaningful employment and the Rotary vision of
the meaning of work ( Service Above Self; They Profit Most Who
Serve the Best).
a. Four-Way Test projects are the highest priority because this is one literacy
tool which is unique to Rotary. Rotarians have a social responsibility to share the
test with the rest of the world.
b. Sharing the Four-Way Test begins by making children, youth and adults
aware of it. That can be done by handing out individual copies of the test and
placing Four-Way Test posters and banners in schools and other public places.
5. Community Service literacy projects address literacy problems in
the local community in one of three ways:
a. First,helping schools and other literacy agencies do their jobs by providing
financial support, in-kind gifts and personal services of Rotarians
b. Second, helping children, youth and adults who have been unable to attend or
succeed in school by organizing and supporting out-of-school remedial projects
Examples are a Concentrated Language Encounter class for slum children; a
Computer-Assisted Literacy Project for dyslexic children; an Imagination Library
project for children in families where the reading of books is not otherwise
possible.
c. Third,promoting a local community culture of educational excellence and inclusion
Projects such as student and teacher recognitions, scholarships, contests and
Competitions are examples.
6. International Service literacy projects most commonly work through The
Rotary Foundation.
a. For example, a 3-H grant from TRF enabled three districts in Brazil to implement a
Concentrated Language Encounter project which trained 1,900 teachers who then
taught about 72,600 adults and children to read and write. District 6900 in Georgia
and District 7080 in Ontario, Canada were the international partners. The
Brazilian districts were 4250,4560 and 4760.
b. International projects don’t have to go through TRF. For example, the Rotary
Club of Hobe Sound/Port Salerno in Florida, USA celebrated International
Literacy Day by conducting a school supply drive for school children in Haiti.
The club provided supplies requested by the school master in Haiti.
7. Club Service literacy projects involve membership, public image
and participation in special days or months related to literacy.
a. International Literacy Day ( September 8th) is one of those special days
b. Rotary’s Literacy Month in March of each year is one of those special
months.
8. The RI Literacy Resource Group encourages all clubs to earn the District
Literacy Award bycompleting five literacy projects
a. Any five literacy projects will do. Numerous ideas are provided by the RILRG
literacy awards brochure available on-line. (
b. Last year there were three Rotary districts in which every club earned the
District Literacy Award – D-5000 ( Hawaii), D-6900 ( Georgia) and
D-3830 (the Philippines).
c. D-5000 has done that for three straight years and is on track to do it again.
So far this year every club in that district has done a dictionary project
( community service), celebrated International Literacy Day ( club service)
and provided 4-Way Test posters to Hawaiian schools ( vocational service)
9. The RI Literacy Resource Group provides numerous on-line resources to
help clubs identifyand implement literacy projects. The three basic
literacy sites are:
10. Every member of your club has just made an acquaintance with
opportunities for service in the area of literacy projects.Perhaps your
club is already involved in a significant number of literacy projects. If so,
congratulations. If not, let the past few Rotary Awareness Minutes be a
catalyst for you and your club to expand your involvement with literacy
projects. ------The Future of Rotary IS in Your Hands.
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