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Beyond Words - Andrew Kay · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in his role as the CEO of the World Literacy Foundation, Andrew Kaye spearheads a powerful literacy organization.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: He has the wonderful opportunity to meet like-minded, amazing people and organisations around the world dedicated to the literacy force.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: With more than 750 million people globally struggling with literacy, this is an epidemic.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It affects all aspects, social, health, and educational parts of their lives.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: As Andy said, sometimes they wear different hats.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: One of those highlights over the past 20 years was running with the Olympic torch when my home country was the host.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Today our world is so much different.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers of children without basic foundational literacy skills is greater, yet the passion still remains, deep to serve others and deliver successful outcomes.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm thrilled to have CEO of the World Literacy Foundation, Andrew Kay, join me on the Beyond Words Global Literacy Podcast.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Andy.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Dave.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having us.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as you know and our audience should know, that we've been working together for a few years now, and I've just seen the extraordinary work that you and the team do.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this podcast is an opportunity to showcase and shine the light on some of that extraordinary work.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about as a starting point how did you actually begin this process of creating the World Literacy Foundation?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: First indeed, thanks for your support over the last couple of years.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's really just been amazing.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's really provided the opportunity for us to talk about the work that we do to so many people, so many communities, and so many countries around the world.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So really thank you for your podcast, allowing us to sort of share our journey.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: The organization really started, it was quite personal, actually.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: My son has struggled with literacy most of his life.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's now 39, but in what is that, three, four years of age, it was really picked up at that stage that there were sort of development type issues going on.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And really, still today, um, Front um can't read or write, only at a very basic level.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not that the school system failed him, there was a variety of other factors as well.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: But he's really gone on in life, he's got a great job.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: He basically gets by just with his iPhone, just to um pre-record or sorry, uh use voice activation type messages.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: So even with low-level, extremely low-level literacy skills, Trent um has managed.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: So Trent really was one of the main reasons to spur me on to start the organization.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's very interesting because well, two things.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: One is obviously it can happen to anyone, it's not always related to where you grow up, it can just be a predisposition, and that's something that I think is worth noting.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: The impact of technology on improving the resources and opportunities, which you and I will touch on, because there's so much that we've seen expand in that sort of technology space.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm interested, that's a very personal cause, very close to your heart.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so have you seen a lot of changes in the literacy space since that first realization that your son and you personally had to grapple with that issue?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Very much so, I guess, on a variety of fronts.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly um education and awareness are great that the issue is more known by the community.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And in recent times, particularly with reports that have been released and discussions that are had, there is certainly greater community awareness around the issue.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And like you noted, look, it's in rich countries and poor countries.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the the circumstances may be a little bit different on the geographical location where you are, but like even particularly just in Australia, like in Tasmania, uh functional literacy is about 40%.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then you go to the indigenous communities in rural and remote areas, extremely high rates of literacy then.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it's really important for people to know the flow and effect if you get through childhood and find yourself in adulthood without uh adequate literacy skill, like the long-term um social and personal impact that has.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very important just to be uh able to intervene early in a child's life, the particular child that we know in like some communities, like 53% of kids are struggling to read at around sort of between ages uh five and eight.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that early intervention um can avert like a lifetime of problems.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is it's pretty extraordinary, isn't it, that figure?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And just extrapolating on how this you well, let's talk just even how it impacted Trent, for example, and how you see it impact young people, um, and also adults, as we know, which it's also you know reached epidemic levels.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just let's talk through how you saw some of the impact.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for people, I think all of us would know someone who's um a low-level reader or totally illiterate.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's not too difficult.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Often people hide it and they don't want it to be seen.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess they find ways to navigate to get through it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But there is like that level of shame, and sometimes for some people, it can really hurt them in their um their attitudes and their motivation and their self-esteem.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for Trent, uh, once he had once he found pathways to navigate through that journey and particularly use technology to write a text message that he and other sort of solutions that he found, um, it never really affected his um self-worth and his self-esteem, which is wonderful, wonderful.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: But for I know for a lot of kids and even adults that have grown up, they um, you know, they hide it and they really really struggle with it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that's one of the positive advantages of recent times is the development of technologies, even AI.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there's the world is rapidly changing with um tools that can help help people like Trent.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really exciting for the future.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's so interesting.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: You say that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I saw DPAC Chopra on the weekend, and it was a whole conference about AI and the impact on health, and particularly on health, but there was also a focus on education and just how transformative it's going to be in this literacy space.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty exciting because we can see that now people can access, you can download so much information that you would otherwise not.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a whole other discussion, but it's something that I think will be fascinating to see how it impacts the World Literacy Foundation.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like Bill Gates, Bill Gates was in the media just recently, just talking about um how AI can really solve many reading challenges.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think when Bill Gates speaks, people listen.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And like he he is speaking in that space now.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: So what's around the corner?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: We don't completely know, but it's certainly you know very exciting.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Very exciting.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can you give me like some example of how you could think of how AI, for example, could help, like just as a on a practical level, what what would be an example?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Have you seen any verse recognition sort of space, there's it's it allows um to tailor literacy interventions based on the individual learner and their needs, and that can be done through AI, and that's one of the really exciting things, both not just in language, but um at their reading level, and some of and every person that struggles to read, there's a different story and different levels and different barriers.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So AI has like a low-cost um point to tailor an intervention like specifically for that person.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you turn the clock back um 30 years ago, it was really just pretty well one solution for all.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where AI is really exciting.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So exciting.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And also we can touch on the literacy pen too.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk to us about that?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is incredible.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is a new invention that has been very successful, which I know you've been very involved with.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me a little bit about that too.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it it's really very um a little electronic device that can attach onto a pen or a pencil.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it really enables and it's designed for a person with really low-level literacy skills, not as much children, but uh young adults and adults that have have fallen through the craps, if you like, of the system and have found themselves in the workforce with virtually no literacy skills at all.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's uh it's a very activated, so it's using AI uh where they can without internet, so it's all pre-recorded on the device and a very simple battery where they can read into the the pen um or a a speaker the words that they're looking for, and then it displays those words um on the pen, and then they can route them on a form that they're filling out for a job or whatever else.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh and it can pretty now in multi-languages.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it stores about 3,000 words of a particular language like on the device, and regardless of where they are, if they're in the remote re remote parts of the world where there's no internet, or even if they're in a big city, uh they still can use the device.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: So there are a lot of adult sound fair.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um in some countries like Nigeria, as an example, it's um I think the population is 160 million people, of which they say sorry, 60 million people are illiterate.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: So in a country like that, you're I think it's tripling an M with a tool, and it's a low-cost tool that they can carry in their pocket.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And for those moments when they find themselves where they need to write something and they're not sure how to write it, they can pull out the device and it can be functional for them quite easily and simply.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is just transformative.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm assuming that that's you know, it's being mass-produced and being distributed where possible.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's in in it's actually active and it's out in the world, and it's certainly going to be a game changer from what you've described.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, because you talk about, and one of the things you and I on this journey have seen is the impact at the most basic level that people don't realize.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like if a woman goes to a medical center and she can't fill out a form and she's got three little kids and she's trying to, there's all these really cold-face experiences that we just take for granted.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can you give me an example of some of the um very fundamental things that that illiteracy impacts?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, very, very, very much so.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it relates to health.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: So um a label of a spirit at a pharmacy, uh drug application forms, it can be health and safety forms in the workplace where you're working.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's more for the adult sort of area, but it's really the day-to-day life.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um and everything that we do requires sort of, you know, very basic levels of literacy skills.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and often for those of us and probably most of your um listeners are avid readers, and they and that's the important thing is really to engage children from birth, um, to be have parents reading to them, have parents doing educational play with them, exposing them to sounds, to songs, to words, and allow them to grow and develop in their preparedness for their first day at school with a strong level of foundational literacy skills.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then from that point on in life, going through the school system, you know, they will be fine.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And as for the parents that really do little or nothing from that naught to five, uh, they're the ones, uh, regardless of whether it's in a developed country or a developing country, they're the ones that often will suffer for the rest of their life.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And like if you're if you notice it, it's as simple as like when you talk about the zip codes or the postcodes, you look at the lowest um or the poorest postcodes in your community, you'll also the that's the area where you'll find the highest levels of illiteracy, and also you'll find the lowest levels or shortest levels of life expectancy.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it is linked.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Correlated, yeah.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very much so.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So um it affects all aspects of life.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, there's a strong economic impact, but also as you say, it's it's there's a strong economic cause as well.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: So one is Yeah, we know yeah, like if it's sort of economic uh economists apply numbers to it, and none of it's very, you know, based on the country, but just um in a country like Australia or the United States or the United Kingdom, um, it's that lost income earning potential.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: So in Australia, for for a young person that's illiterate, it can be you know up to thirty thousand dollars a year less income that they can earn because of their low-level literacy skills.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um and and yeah, and then um look, you look at the prison system and the juvenile prison system uh around the world, up to 70% of inmates are illiterate.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a connection there as well.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then you've got the added, you know, that they can't go to university because they haven't got, you know, just it's just like building endlessly.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I mean, you've created this incredible organization, which I'm very honored to be working with.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I have great respect for the way you're now in seven countries, um, you're impacting.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've interviewed people in in so many countries, and I've met so many people with very similar challenges, and even in the education system, you know, whether I'm speaking in the US or the UK or wherever we're speaking, I mean, I obviously I did that interview in Afghanistan with that young girl who literally wasn't allowed to have books, and we know where that's gone, and it's it's an extraordinary story.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you find that fascinating?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why have we got such a global problem like this?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and why is it so and what you're doing is incredible.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: But it's Yeah, there's certainly things that are common regardless of your geographical location with literacy, and then there's things that are quite different, like in Afghanistan, where there's just like no access to books and um and in other parts of the world, like some certain sub-Saharan Africa as well.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, like as an organization, you know, we have become like a peat body representing, I guess, these different places and different cultures.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess one thing that we've done uh now for six times is to provide a place every two years for these people that are working at a regional level, a national level, or an international level to come together and talk.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that as a collective group of people passionate about addressing the issue that we don't live in our ivory towers, that we're learning.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's particularly important now, like with AOF and other things that are radically fast-tracking change, that people are learning and exchanging ideas.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So every two years we organize the World Literacy Summit.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one thing that we do to try and unite the sector together to be, if I think if we're together and talking, we're we're better as a sector.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's academics, practitioners, a variety of people that are involved in the sector.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then I guess it's yeah, like the interventions, like the interventions, like even here in Australia, like we have a hundred active Indigenous um languages spread across Australia.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: For many young indigenous children in um remote communities, they're speaking like a local dialect at home and in their community.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And their first real introduction to English is their first day of school.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And by five, it's it's really tough.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: You've really got to learn then English in a bilingual way.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: So today we can, and some of these languages um um are only spoken by a very small number of people, sometimes just a few hundred people, and the dialect 200 kilometers down the road is completely different.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's these little remote communities with their own dialect.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: But digital now allows us to create bilingual children's books, both in local dialect and in English, at a very low cost point, where in the old days, translators would go up there, they'd translate, and they'd print, you know, children's books.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, 60 kids, it wasn't really a costly and effective way.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: But with digital, you can incorporate sounds, videos, and all these other things, plus have bilingual books um, you know, for children in these sort of type situations.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So as an organization, we've been able to adapt to the needs like globally and develop programs that are very much um adapt to those needs in those communities.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess like in Australia, we're very uh focused on 0 to 5 in a program called group reading out of poverty.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as I mentioned earlier, we know that the highest numbers of low-level reading and kids that don't have access to books are a low-income community, so very much sort of focused on that area.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: So our interventions around the globe very much vary um depending on um those communities and countries that we're working in and being attuned to the needs.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: But even yeah, like the US, the UK, and Australia, um, that functional literacy rate can be anywhere from you know 20 through to 25%.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that means you know, that that percentage of people in our communities um have a very basic level of uh literacy skills.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And today, you know, with kids spending so much more time, screen time, you know, what does that actually mean?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we're just starting to learn that, you know, that kids are um reading uh books less, and um, and that's particularly through those early years, that's a real issue.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then on the on the other side, you've got like uh booktop at the moment that have 300 million visitors every day, and it's really fostered a whole community of people that um love books.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: So this younger, so generation X and Y are really reconnecting to sort of like a reading club sort of type thing that on TikTok through book talks.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So there's it's good and really, yeah.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's right.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, everything has its you know, divine side and its diabolical side, and it's just a question of you know tapping, which is what you do with the foundation, and I've noticed that.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, it's the the challenges are many.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say is the greatest challenge to trying to run an organization like this on so many levels in so many countries with so many nuances?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: You seem to manage it extremely efficiently, but I'm sure I mean I know that that it can be challenging to ensure you get that streamline.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I think like I am sort of entrepreneurial in nature.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, if there's a barrier there, I like to figure out well, how am I going to get over that barrier?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: But but I think like for me, in a CEO role, often it's really trying to, if you like, live within your means, you know, and we're a relatively small organization financially, about 2.6 million globally turnover per year.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're not a multi-million dollar organization.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: We have like some wonderful partners involved in the organization who provide funding and like some individual donors, philanthropic trusts, corporates, etc.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a lot of in-kind support and goodwill and volunteerism, but um doing things like within our financial means.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, often the frustration is just not having enough funds to do everything that we'd like to do.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: We find programs like it, particularly at the moment in Africa, we're really in Kenya, Nigeria, and in Uganda, we've really sort of kicking goals there, if you like, in the program delivery.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And we've been working in those areas nearly for seven plus years, but finally I'm you know we're seeing some really good results, and it would be great to scale it up, but that takes money.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: And there are like institutional investors like the World Bank and Global Partnership for Education and those sort of groups, but uh look, we're not funded by them, and it all takes time, so it's just um trying to hold back the big ideas and You know, stay afloat.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the like that having the diversity of income has been the thing that um has allowed us to grow and succeed.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know many organizations have one or two, you know, sole sources of income.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: It might be the World Bank, if you like, and then they do this great program, and once their funding finishes, they they disappear.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: They disappear.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's right.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a very broad spectrum and a broad base, which is good because, as you say, I think the other factor to that that is very important is you're in a very powerful position in many ways because when you're teaching and educating and giving people those resources, it's all about managing what's within those resources and how that's distributed and what's the content.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, diversity is a critical part of what you do.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's very important to you because it allows for the breadth of what should actually was really interesting when, you know, I just come back to that DPEC Chopra day because it was quite interesting.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things he was saying about AI is we now have access to Jesus, Buddha, Einstein.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we basically have the greatest access to data and content we've ever had in our lives.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like no human could access it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, in some ways, he's saying, which is sort of interesting, he's sort of saying we can now trawl all the greatest minds and access that material in a new way and in a much more hybrid form, which I suppose in time will be helpful for literacy because there'll be things that we can talk about that we may not have understood before.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know I even in my son who's in a manufacturing business and he has scientists and engineers that work for him, but often when they have problems now, they're using artificial intelligence and harnessing everything that's being written, every study that's being done.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and often, you know, the scientists and the engineers that work for him, but you know, they find things that they've never heard of to solve solutions.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, like in a practical sense, even in his his business, it's really working.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll sometimes say we might say a very successful business.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's an extraordinary business that he's created, which we've actually featured on the um the podcast.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, talk to me about what for you you see as the next steps.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know we've got the summit coming up in April, which is very exciting, um, as you refer to, but also there's the Christmas campaign.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about that too, because that's pretty important and pivotal.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, Christmas time we need to make sure we give, and it's a really great way to give.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, very, very much.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's certainly um it's a time in that um festive season that it's it's actually often called the season of giving.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's that time um both to um engage with people and particularly people who are avid readers with that ability to be it, you know, donate um, you know, five or ten books to a child that has no books, it has that ability to link people to provide some tutoring support.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, a lot of the information is just on our World Literacy Foundation website where people can go to.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it's difficult for many people with at the moment with the cost of living, but as little or as much as they can do, um, that would be fantastic.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for people that are listening to this today who are avid readers and and and believers in literacy, I mean, share our content on social media and on their social media channels.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's another way of getting the word out there.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's you know so there's sort of little things that everyone can do this season of giving.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um for us, you know, lying ahead, I sort of feel like we've really um we've had about seven years where all, or six years, where all our key staff have been together.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's pretty unusual in a in a workforce today.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, often, particularly with young people, you know, it's a bit of a revolving door.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I just sort of sense, you know, that um having like a solid team together um is really starting to give benefits to the organization in our impact, um, you know, that we're all on the same page.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um so that's the exciting.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I so for for next year particularly, I you know, it's just I'm excited for it for that, particularly just for that reason.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I've I went through a stage where it was, you know, every year and a half or so in a key role, someone was coming and going.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: But when you have like six years of all this the serious team together and and an isn't that revolving door, it really makes a big difference, I think, to the organization.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you get that stability.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So just on a practical level, let's say um one of our listeners has a big box of books that they'd like to donate to the Christmas appeal.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: What do they do?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: How do they do that?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the probably the best thing is just to email us, um, which should be info at worldliteracyfoundation.org.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, whether they're in Australia, the UK, the United States, um, wherever they are, um, that email will come to us and we'll find someone in those areas that would receive those books.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, often there's uh even authors, children's authors that um have an overrun of um books and want to donate new books, that's fantastic.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Particularly uh in Africa, really appreciate um like educational resources, not just books, but also colouring stuff and anything else related to education.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we're wherever they are.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um and yeah, up in uh the Indigenous communities of Australia, we're predominantly connected to five uh indigenous communities in northern Queensland.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um through uh out of cairns, we can sort of resource there.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, people just let us know where they'd like their books to go, and that yeah, it's greatly, greatly appreciated.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, on that note, Andrew, thank you so much for your time.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love working with you.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's such an honour to do this podcast.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: It really has enlightened me, but also hopefully our listeners.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I look forward to hopefully seeing you at the summit, if not before, which I'm sure I'll see you anyway.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: But um, it is really wonderful work that you're doing, and we're all so grateful to have someone like you in charge heading up the ship.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really appreciate your support over the years.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well at the World Literacy Foundation, we believe in literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning and education.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: People who cannot read or write experience difficulties with simple everyday tasks, such as reading the label of a medicine bottle, filling in a job application, or understanding a traffic sign.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: When we help someone to acquire literacy skills, we're empowering them to access to better opportunities in life to break the poverty cycle.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a global organization in Africa, Latin America, the United States, the United Kingdom, and in Australia.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: The World Literacy Foundation is on a mission to ensure that every child, regardless of geographic location, has the opportunity to acquire literacy skills and books to reach their full potential.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're striving to eradicate illiteracy by 2040.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Reading and writing should just be a basic right, not a privilege.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: So please, if you're interested, head to our website at the World Literacy Foundation to see what is happening globally, this extraordinary organisation, when we realise that there are 750 million people who cannot read and write.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: So see if you can contribute and make a difference.