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With Mr Borhene Chakroun, Director, Division for Policy and Lifelong Learning, UNESCO and Ms Mmabaledi Kefilwe Seeletso, Chair of UNESCO International Literacy Prizes Jury.
Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi), a Nigerian non-profit organisation, has won the prestigious UNESCO Confucius Literacy Prize 2024 for its outstanding foundational learning Programme based on the recommendations of an international jury. The UNESCO Confucius Literacy Prize is sponsored by the Government of the People’s Republic of China and recognizes contributions to functional literacy and leveraging technology for literacy development. This annual prize award which carries an endowment of US$ 30,000, a medal and a diploma, rewards outstanding individuals, governments and NGOs working to promote literacy for rural adults and out-of-school young people, particularly women and girls, was presented at a global award ceremony organised by UNESCO in Yaounde, Cameroun on the 9th September 2024 to celebrate International Literacy Day.
In his acceptance speech, CEO and Founder, Gideon Olanrewaju noted that this global award is another timely recognition of the incredible work AREAi does across all of its multidimensional programmes. As he stressed, “ Being awarded as a UNESCO International Literacy Prize Winner wouldn’t be possible without the support of a vast network of partners, teachers, government stakeholders and global sponsors who have believed strongly on the power and potential of our programme to transform lives through literacy and language development. From 1500 beneficiaries in a small pilot intervention in 2021 to over 25,000 beneficiaries across 10 refugee camps and communities in Nigeria, AREAi’s results with FastTrack show that glaringly that multilingualism is pivotal in advancing foundational skills at home and within schools.
Chief Executive Officer, AREAi – Prince Gideon Olanrewaju with the Director of Programmes, AREAi – Edidiong Anthony Simeon.
Also represented at the award ceremony, the Director of Programmes, Edidiong Anthony Simeon also expressed extreme delight for the feat. In her words, “ We are deservingly recognized for the work we have done with FastTrack. Our programme, FastTrack, leverages the power of bilingual instruction and translanguaging to enhance and enable the provision of and access to quality multilingual literacy instruction to thousands of out-of-school children and refugee learners across rural communities and internally displaced persons camps across Nigeria. We cannot wait to do more to reach more beneficiaries and even scale into other countries.
Prince Gideon Olanrewaju with UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay
The organization notes the incredible support the programme has received from notable national and international partners, including the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) (NCFRMI), as well as Theirworld, UNLEASH, MIT and Jacobs Foundation.
AREAi joined five (5) other organisations championing outstanding literacy programmes from Ghana, Indonesia, Egypt, Austria and Panama as laureates of this year’s International Literacy Prize, which is awarded on International Literacy Day.
We are excited to acknowledge the efforts and support of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Education, the UNESCO Office in Nigeria and the National Commission for UNESCO for the great opportunity to represent our country on this global stage. It remains surreal to have the Minister of Education, Nigeria, ably represented by Professor Simon Ibor Akpama, Executive Secretary, National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education (NMEC) and Albert Mendy, Regional Advisor for Education, UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office West Africa join us for the award ceremony.