True Facts
Did You Know?
There are an estimated 771 million adults around the world who cannot read, 2/3 are women and 1/3 are men. 98% of non-literates live in developing countries. Illiteracy rates in Africa: 50%
In some regions nearly half of all women are reported to be illiterate, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics latest literacy estimates
Youth Literacy Rates
There are an estimated 137 million illiterate youth world-wide, 61% of whom are female.(NOTE: for the population aged 15-24 years old) In Sub-Saharan Africa, which as the lowest combined youth literacy rate of all the regions, the gender gap is slightly narrower with youth literacy rates of 77% for men and 68% for women. Just under 30% of the worlds illiterate youth population live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Poverty
In Sub-Saharan Africa one in two of people survive off of less than one dollar per day. An estimated 3.3 million people in Kenya are hungry due to severe drought and wide spread crop failure, which have resulted in food shortages. One out of four children throughout the continent are underweight and/or malnourished, according to a 2004 Kenya Times report.
Sub-Saharan African Countries Include:
Angola, Benin Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,Comoros, Congo, Congo DR, Cote d I'voire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lisotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
