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herself, she is not working as one right now because she cannot afford to be a volunteer. She has children to support and needs a paying job.

MARGINALIZATION OF WOM- EN’S LITERACY ISSUES

Helen Thundercloud says “‘the tragedy is that women don’t get paid (or paid well) for their work. This relates to power issues. We find it’s usually white males who are in power, and they’re not especially interested inthe fact that there are a lot ofmarginalized people and women for whom literacy is a real problem.’ Literacy workers have never been studied as a group, says Betty-Ann Lloyd, a researcher in adult literacy in Halifax.

’’But experience tells us that lit- eracy workers are primarily women from frontline caretaking kinds of jobs. In programs that tend to be unionized or are run through school boards, there are a higher proportion of men (about 25 per cent) than in community-based, volunteer programs (about 5 per cent).

’?She says most people under 45 '

have basic literacy skills, unless they are disabled. ‘‘Women usually leave school to take care of their kids, and so they have some basic skills. But ifthey change jobs, or do something different, they can go from being ‘literate’ to ‘illiterate’ overnight, and may need to upgrade their skills.”’

Government statistics show that 25 to 40 per cent of women want some form ofacademic upgrading, Lloyd says.

Peggy Holt, a literacy worker at the New Brunswick Community Col- lege in Fredericton, addresses the fact that some people say just as many men need literacy upgrading.

’*?In my experience, it is women who haven’t had an opportunity to have literacy. And even when the numbers of men and women in literacy classes are almost equal, men tend to be mostly single and young and don’t seemto need the same support systems women do.”’

Holt did her thesis on why women discontinue academic upgrading. ‘‘I re-

, (October 4, 1994) .

alized that when women dropped out, it also meant their children lost an oppor- tunity for a new life. If you can get one

woman out, you can also get a whole family.”’

For Holt, it was also a ‘‘personal thing. I am a ‘survivor,’ and feel a need to help other women get their education because I want them to survive also.”’

She develops a lot of her own materials to make them pertinent to learners’ experiences, and is applying to be one of 15 women who will work on a book about literacy practices and exer- cises to do with students, organized by the Canadian Council on Learning Op- portunities for Women (CCLOW).

BATTLING THE ISOLATION

Aisla Thomson from the CCLOW says that women wanted the conference and the network because ‘‘women are feel- ing very isolated in their work. There were no umbrella organizations that rep- resented literacy workers where there could be a dialogue and exchange about issues of importance to women. It was almost like going back to the early con-

sciousness-raising that happened in the.

late ‘G0s. (7

STERALIAROTEMELA

In From Margin to Center, Ameri- can feminist author Bell Hooks writes: “Tf, in a single year, women stopped spending thousands of dollars to organ- ize conferences that are attended by only a select group of individuals, the goal of that year could be mass outreach in every state, with the intention of taking feminism out of theuniversity and into the streets and houses of this society.””

There isan element of truthin this statement, Thundercloud says.

”*When we look at people who go to conferences, it ain’t people who we are trying to ‘educate.’ Those peo- ple stay at home, living their lives, while others of a different status go to study the problem.

”? And I can speak from the per- spective of being an aboriginal. Indian Affairs has been running our lives for more than 100 years. They get together and say, ‘This is the problem with our Native people, and these are the meas- ures we will take to make it better.’ And so it can go with literacy workers,’’ she said.

Still, Thundercloud says it is im- portant to have literacy conferences. “*The exchange of ideas is important. But we also have to find other ways of getting together so that literacy work- ers don’t come back and say, ‘This is what welearned, and this is whatwe will do to you.””’

Breen says, though, that ‘‘some- times we just want to talk to each other, for starters.

’?Most women at the conference in 1992 found it empowering. We did it in a very feminist, circular, non-linear way. We had no speakers, no experts, or facilitators even, for much of it. We just had talking circles around different questions.”

Currently, there are six ‘““Wan- dering Notebooks’’ circulating around the country. The idea is to provide a forum for women involved in literacy to share their thoughts, experiences and stories about the issue, to be published later.

(Source: CUP Quebec Bureau)

it for the Kenyan You

By Millie Trainor

IN THE FALL OF 1993, SOME Nairobi youth attended a five-day lescent Fertility Management Semi presenting the usual safe-sex p ganda. At the end of the seminar, | wonderful young people asked t their views. The following is statement: et

1. Youth should respect their pa and involve them in matters relat sexuality and fertility awareness. 2. Programs should be started oi dio, TV and other media, chur mosques, chief’s barazas, ete. to parents guide the youth on sexua 3. Chastity before marriage shou emphasized to youth. 4. Total abstinence, self restraint self-control by youth is the only w stop AIDS. 5. Sex is sacred and its only place marriage. It is not for fun and ad ture. 6. Contraceptives ofall kinds and promote immorality among youth must be discouraged. They shoul declared illegal. -- 7. Condoms have no place in the against AIDS.

8. Funds tied to the promotio contraceptives should be used for )' morality programs. 9. Society should face youth probh such as juvenile delinquency, abuse, unemployment, and aban ment. ;

10. Religious education should be Phasized and strengthened in all i tutions to help the youth devel deeper sense of morality. 11. The youth reject sex educati schools. 12. Literature on music, pornogr etc. should be restricted. 13. The youth condemn abortion. 14. Adults should be role models fo youth in matters of sex. If this is a ‘‘developing country’ youth (who comprise over 50% 0 population) are certainly develop!

the right way!