Festivals aim to boost literacy rates in Rio de Janeiro

Insight

Festivals aim to boost literacy rates in Rio de JaneiroFestivals aim to boost literacy rates in Rio de Janeiro

Literacy rates are lagging in parts of the developing world. Reading, for example, isn’t the most popular pastimes in the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. But maybe that can change.

In response, some of Brazil’s poorest neighborhoods have begun staging annual literature celebrations.

CCTV America’s Lucrecia Franco reports from Rio de Janeiro.

Book donations are a big part of one literary festival for Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, or slums. It’s taken place every year since 2012, bringing national and international authors to the city’s marginalized neighborhoods.

Efforts to promote reading include all kinds of activities, such as door-to-door readings, where volunteers dressed in colorful costumes walk through alleys and engage neighbors with books.

In a country where the average citizen reads just two books a year, it is quite a task, but organizers said they have discovered a growing appreciation for culture in poorer areas and they want to promote it.


Alexandra Berrio on literacy rates in the developing world

CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Alexandra Berrio, director of innovation at the World Literacy Foundation.