Verizon Foundation President Gaston Supports UNESCO Global Literacy Goals

Patrick Gaston, president of the Verizon Foundation, spoke at a gathering of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France on January 26. Gaston is participating on a task force challenged with confirming the strategy for the second half of the literacy decade and designating actions to reach UNESCO's goal to enhance global literacy.

UNESCO launched the United Nations Literacy Decade in 2003 to set a clear direction for promoting literacy for adults and children throughout the world. In his speech, Gaston sited three factors as the key to driving literacy globally in the 21st century: public/private partnerships, human capital and technology. In the following excerpts, he provides examples.

Public/private partnerships
"One example of a successful public/private partnership is Verizon's work with Georgetown University. We partnered with Georgetown to support its work with UNESCO in building and sustaining a web-based network of universities engaged in literacy initiatives, called the Global Learning Portal.

"This resource for educators offers online professional development courses, a library, translation services, software and materials for literacy instruction. The partnership also includes ProLiteracy, an international literacy organization based in the U.S., now designing a suite of courses intended for broad use in teacher training."

Human capital
"Verizon employees are an example of what individuals can do. Our employees, who number 235,000, have been partners to improve literacy and education for many years - working in community-based programs and schools.

"Today, our volunteers are active in thousands of towns in the U.S. and in India, Argentina, the U.K., Hong Kong and the Philippines. In 2008, they volunteered a total of 600,000 hours."

Technology
"Verizon knows that technology can make learning tools and resources available anywhere there is a connection, whether on a wireline or wireless network. In fact, we are doing that every day through Verizon Thinkfinity.org - an educational website that provides free lessons and learning resources that align with U.S. educational standards and with research-based instructional approaches.

"Through the internet, it reaches a mass audience, serving thousands of school children in the U.S. and globally. In 2008, Verizon trained 25,000 teachers in the U.S., to use this resource in their classrooms. "At the Verizon Foundation, we have been engaged in the issue of literacy and education for a very long time. Improving global literacy is not an easy task. It is the job of all of us. And Verizon stands with you."