Visit
Shadow Forest Authors on Myspace, add your support and
become a friend. Everyone welcome.
What authors & others
are saying about SFA.
'I'm
in and I love it!'
Thank
you so much SFA. What you are doing is just absolutely
wonderful and I am so honored to be a part of helping
in this way. You are a jewel! Keep me updated on everything.
Deborah Simpson
As
an author, one of the main reasons I write is
to entertain people, to make them happy, and give
them a world they love being in and escaping to.
Beyond this dream, that a book can help a fellow
human
being along the path to literacy is an incredibly beautiful,
meaningful and deeply rewarding gift. I am very, very
proud and truly honored to be a member of Shadow Forest
Authors.
–Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands
I
am pleased to be a member of the Shadow Forest
Authors. As an author I love the idea of books
winging their way to every corner of the globe.
I love to think that
one of my books might enrich someone’s life, as
writing those books have enriched mine.
As a reader, I know I would forsake TV, computer, radio,
and movies before I’d give up books. Other forms
of entertainment and intellectual pursuit will sometimes
enhance the book, but they will never replace it. Thank
you, SFA for this opportunity to be a part of bringing
pleasure to others through books. Eunice Boeve
I
love SFA because the more we can encourage others
to read books the better. Reading serious fiction
and books for intelligent readers has declined
drastically in the
last ten years or so. I love sending books to others
and encouraging them to read. SFA helps wonderfully
with that, and provides me with a little publicity as
well. Great venture. Keep up the good work. Joe Cowley.
What
a wonderful idea - I am delighted to contribute. Everyone
should have a pile of unread books beside their bed!
Trish
Clark
Although
my name is nothing special, but still I want to
help in my own little way and be a part of this
great endeavour. I admire and respect your attentiveness
to those who are in needs. I really am so happy
to be a member of Shadow Forest Authors. God bless you,
SFA!
Ernesto Pangilinan Santiago
Literacy
has never been so important in the world we live.
In any society, everyone especially children should
be able to read and write so their knowledge may
one
day contribute to the general well-being of humankind.
Thanks to Shadow Forest Authors and all the wonderful
Organisations who look for new and used books as well
as eBooks to distribute them where they are urgently
needed, we may hope that one day, everyone will have
access to all the knowledge accumulated since writing
exists. Donate to such a great cause is therefore one
of our duties.
Thank
you SFA for the opportunity to donate my work
through your fantastic program. The stellar work
you are doing is rarely recognized and it is an
honor to be involved.
Aaron Hoopes
- author of Breathe Smart
This
is one of the most worthy organizations I've
ever encountered. In the written word, we find
inspiration, courage, laughter, hope and love.
Books
declare the best of who and what we are as the
human race; Shadow Forest
spreads
that vision throughout the world. Now, what could be
better than that?
Ann B Keller - author of Briggen
This
is a wonderful organization you've created here.
Illiteracy is such a huge issue all around the
world and anything to help promote reading and
learning, I'm definitely
up
for.
Please keep up the great work. I'm glad to be apart
of a great system to help change people's lives for
the better!
Rae Lori- author of The Eye of Alloria
This
is a good idea getting books to people who have
none or who have little opportunity to get them,
it furthers their reading skills and promotes
the written word to many other people
in
this age of the internet. I think everyone should read
and have access to books of many types and topics. And
by improving other peoples reading ability, maybe they
can then start to write and tell their story? I am a
firm believer in encouraging not just in other people
reading but them writing as well. Keep up the good work,
I’m so happy to be a part of this.
Nick Armbrister, author of Her name is hope
Having
been a teacher for 20 years, I can only applaud what
you are doing to promote literacy around the world,
whilst also encouraging an appreciation and enjoyment
of the written word. In this age of computer games and
digital T.V., the more
exposure to books that youngsters, in particular, can get -
whether in electronic or paper form - the better. The more they
can read, the more they can expand their vocabulary and learn
'correct' grammar - at least, that is my hope! I wish you every
success in your future efforts.
Helena Harper, author of It's a Teacher's Life
I
cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to
a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is
taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset
can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas
thought slpeling was ipmorantt.........................
News
Items The World Today, ABC Radio
Reporter - George Roberts. Title - Half of all Australians can't read, write properly:
survey.
An international survey suggests about half of all Australians
can't read properly. And 70 per cent of the population has trouble
understanding numbers.
ACAL - Australian Council for Adult Literacy
See their website for Literacy links, reports, e-news and other
literacy related information. http://www.acal.edu.au/
Introduction
Welcome
to Shadow Forest Authors
The Fellowship of Authors and Supporters for charity.
Our
mission at SFA, to encourage
every author worldwide
and from every genre to donate just one copy of their title to fill
a void in reading materials and get both paperback books and
e-books where they are urgently needed. Authors and supporters standing
together to make a difference, our humble shadows speaking volumes.
What
do SFA Authors and Supporters contribute?
SFA
authors donate a copy of their title to a SFA beneficiary, who places
books in much needed hands. See Support Us and
Contact pages for information and to be listed on SFA.
Authors do not have to list with SFA to donate books. SFA would appreciate
you adding a note to a beneficiary, acknowledging that you support SFA.
Everyone
can help
SFA supporters can Adopt an author or authors, purchasing their titles
to be donated to an SFA beneficiary.
Encourage Authors by leaving comments
Join our Forum
Spread the word about SFA and our beneficiaries.
Sign up for our newsletter. See our Support Us page for
information.
Sean
Astin on the National Centre for Familly Literacy NCFL
The
cost of Illiteracy in Asia.
End
Our Literacy Crisis
The only practical, proven way to guarantee every child or adult
student can learn to read English and End Our Literacy Crisis.
'Let's
End Our Literacy Crisis', the title of a revolutionary book, tells
it all and we can end the illiteracy crisis! This book convincingly
answers questions, based upon the most statistically accurate
and extensive study ever commissioned by the U.S. government.
92 million U.S. adults, 47% of them, cannot read and write well
enough to hold an above-poverty-level-wage job. A later study
proved that 40% or more of the employees in most U.S. businesses
are functional illiterates. Statistics from other countries are
almost certain to be similar.
Let's
End Our Literacy Crisis also explains:
(1) Seven reasons why most of us do not realize how extensive
functional illiteracy is.
(2) How serious the financial, emotional and physical problems
that illiterates must constantly endure.
(3) How illiteracy is costing each U.S. adult who can read at
least $3700 each year for government programs that illiterates
use, for higher consumer prices because of the cost of recruiting
and training functional illiterates, and for their mistakes and
inabilities in the workplace, for juvenile delinquency and crime
directly related to illiteracy. English illiteracy in other countries
undoubtedly incurs similar costs.
(4) Most importantly, it details a proven method of completely
and permanently ending most English illiteracy, not only for 92
million or more Americans but also for hundreds of millions of
English-speaking people around the world who cannot read English.
As
you may know, English is used by more people as a native or as
a second language than any other language in the world. This method
of ending English illiteracy has been recommended by dozens of
scholars of English and of other languages for 247 years and has
been proven effective in more than 300 languages, but it has never
been tried in English! In 295 of the 300 languages, 95% of them,
the students became fluent readers in less than three months.
It requires most of the 53% of U.S. students who become functionally
literate from two to four years of the present reading instruction.
How
will all of us who can read benefit by ending our literacy crisis?
You will greatly benefit if you are concerned that a friend or
relative is or, after the presently inadequate schooling, may
become functionally illiterate and want to spare them the suffering
and problems illiteracy brings.
You object to needlessly paying a comparatively large portion
of your income for illiteracy, at least $3700 each year per U.S.
adult.
You are a teacher who is frustrated by knowing that about half
of your students will never become fluent readers with present
teaching methods.
You have financial interest in an organization being hurt by functionally
illiterate workers.
You have financial interest in an organization which prepares
or sells written material , since functional illiterates are not
customers of the organization.
You have financial interest in an organization being hurt by competition
with more literate foreign workers.
You feel compassion for 92 million in the U.S. and 100s of millions
elsewhere who are functionally illiterate in English.
You want to improve communication between language groups and
thereby lessen many of the international conflicts.
Read Bob C Cleckler's
book - Let's end our illiteracy Crisis -
Get one also for a friend.
Global
Literacy Progress Masks Sharp Regional Gaps
Tuesday, 7 October 2008, 12:43 pm
Press Release: United Nations
Global Progress In Literacy Masks Sharp Regional Gaps, UN Report
Finds New York, Oct 6 2008 6:10PM
Global literacy rates continue to rise but some regions are still
lagging sharply behind in the campaign to ensure that everyone
can read and write, a United Nations report released today finds.
The report, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says the world literacy rate should
reach almost 87 per cent by 2015. The number of illiterate adults
has also fallen by nearly 100 million in the past 15 years.
But the report – released at the halfway mark of the UN
Literacy Decade (2003-2012) – notes that certain regions,
particularly South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, are struggling
to keep up with progress elsewhere and called for new strategies
to improve literacy rates in those parts of the world.
“As we begin the second half of the United Nations Literacy
Decade, the international community must seek new ways to work
with marginalized populations for whom traditional approaches
have proved ineffective,” said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura.
While the period of 2000-2006 pushed the global adult literacy
rate up from 76 per cent to 83.6 per cent, UNESCO said such figures
mask considerable regional disparities.
For instance, 75 per cent of the 774 million illiterate adults
live in only 15 countries – including Bangladesh, Brazil,
China, India and Nigeria. And in some sub-Saharan African countries,
the number of non-literate adults has increased in recent years
by approximately 30 million.
The literacy gender gap also remains almost unchanged, with 63
per cent of illiterate adults at the end of 1994 being women compared
to 64 per cent in 2006.
Under such circumstances, three quarters of the 127 countries
for which projections were calculated will miss the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) of halving adult illiteracy rates by 2015.
Several initiatives have been undertaken by the UN agency to boost
the promotion of literacy, including three plans to improve the
management and adaptability of literacy programmes and a series
of regional and sub-regional conferences in 2007 and 2008 which
gave new momentum to policy focus on literacy.
The other recommendations in the report include the need to boast
national government and donor organization funding, while improving
the delivery of literacy programmes, notably by adapting teaching
methods to diverse contexts and demands.
Meanwhile, a lunch will be held tomorrow with the participation
of First Lady of the United States Laura Bush, UNESCO’s
Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade, marking the launch
of a new publication entitled The Global Literacy Challenge.
In Seoul, a UNESCO conference – “Building Equitable
and Sustainable Societies in Asia and Pacific: the Challenge of
Adult Learning” – will be held from today until 8
October to review key issues in adult learning and propose strategies
to renew policies and action.
Today in Paris also marked the signing of a memorandum of understanding
for a strategic partnership between UNESCO and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), which aims to undertake joint activities
in Latin America and the Caribbean in areas including capacity
building for the achievement of Education for All (EFA).
Literacy
Statistics
According to the Literacy
Report released by the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES)
About
one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English 11 million
Americans lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks 30 million
adults may not be able to make sense of a simple pamphlet Adults
with ability to perform challenging and complex reading tasks
made an average yearly salary of $50,700 in 2003. That is $28,000
more than those who lacked basic skills.
Literacy statistics and juvenile court
85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court
system are functionally illiterate.
More than 60 percent of all prison inmates are
functionally illiterate.
Penal
institution records show that inmates have a 16% chance of returning
to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70% who
receive no help. This equates to taxpayer costs of $25,000 per
year per inmate and nearly double that amount for juvenile offenders.
Illiteracy
and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states,
"The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence,
and crime is welded to reading failure." Over 70% of inmates
in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.
Many
of the USA ills are directly related to illiteracy. Just a few
statistics:
Literacy is learned. Illiteracy is passed along by parents who
cannot read or write.
One child in four grows up not knowing how to
read.
43%
of adults at Level 1 literacy skills live in poverty compared
to only 4% of those at Level 5
3
out of 4 food stamp recipients perform in the lowest 2 literacy
levels
90% of welfare recipients are high school dropouts
16
to 19 year old girls at the poverty level and below, with below
average skills, are 6 times more likely to have out-of-wedlock
children than their reading counterparts.
Low
literary costs $73 million per year in terms of direct health
care costs. A recent study by Pfizer put the cost much higher.
Grim
Illiteracy Statistics
U.S.A Illiterate people are missing out on 237 billion dollars
total each year in money that they could be earning if they knew
how to read.
-
The total amount of money being spent on illiteracy by the federal
government is at more than ten billion dollars each year, which
grows steadily.
Literacy
and basic education levels of South Africans aged 15 and over
Level of education 2001
Full general education (Grade 9 and more)
14. 3 million (54%) 13.1 million (50%) 15.8 million (52%)
Less than full general education (less than Grade 9)
12.2 million (46%) 13.2 million (50%) 14.6 million (48%)
Less than grade 7 7.4 million (28%) 8.5 million (32%) 9.6 million
(32%)
No schooling 2.9 million (11%) 4.2 million (16%) 4.7 million (16%)
French National Statistics Institute
The IVQ survey conducted by INSEE1 in 2004-2005
focused on the population between 18 and 65 living in metropolitan
France, which amounts to roughly 40 million people. See the results. Illiteracy: a word that we would prefer to no longer use,
yet… 860 million men and women in the world are deprived
of the most basic skills, and must deal with the inability to
read and write. Industrialized countries with mandatory schooling
are not spared.
To refer to this situation, affecting every age group, and to
distinguish it from that of people who never attended school,
France has chosen the term «illiteracy». A harsh word
that provokes shock and indignation but that is still necessary
today so that those who face it are not neglected, since they
tend to hide this condition so often associated with failure.
Illiteracy is a glaring problem that remains invisible.
Source: PDF
from the French National Statistics Institute
Illiteracy has direct impact on human health, says
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s in
message for International Literacy Day as he calls for
more investment to boost reading skills
14/August/2008
One in five adults -- some 774 million -- is illiterate, and thus
lives with no access to the vast global store of written communication.
Seventy-five million children are not in school and millions more
young people leave school without a level of literacy adequate
for productive and active participation in society. These would
be devastating numbers at any time, for individuals and societies
alike; that they occur in the context of today’s information
society should drive home the urgency of efforts to promote literacy
throughout the world.
The
theme of this year’s observance of International Literacy
Day, “Literacy and Health”, is meant to draw more
attention to the links between the two. Illiteracy has a direct
impact on human health. It prevents people from being able to
read the instructions on a medicine bottle. It means that people
are less likely to know facts about AIDS, malaria and other infectious
diseases. And because two thirds of those who are illiterate are
women and girls, who often bear the burden of caring for sick
members of their families, it means that they will be less likely
to know about prevention and support services, and how to use
life-saving medicines and other treatments.
To
increase literacy skills, well-defined policies and increased
investment will be essential. Literacy is indispensable for achieving
the Millennium Development Goals targeting maternal health and
combating HIV and malaria, and for addressing some of the world’s
most important public health challenges. On this International
Literacy Day, let us all -- Governments, the United Nations family,
donors and civil society -- translate this commitment into more
vigorous action. Literacy for all will benefit us all.
