Friendship wins UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy

Staff Reporter  :
Friendship, a social purpose organisation, has been awarded the ‘Confucius Prize for Literacy’ by UNESCO.

The award is given in recognition of the use of digital tools in the education of adults and out-of-school children in marginalised areas that empowered them in life.

UNESCO announced the winners of the award on Wednesday, September 06.

Three out of 193 United Nations member states receive the awards each year.

Friendship from Bangladesh, Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring (DREAM) Project from Dominican Republic and Uganda National Self-Advocacy Initiative (UNSAI) from Uganda received the Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2023.

Friendship has been awarded for creating digital learning opportunities to enhance the capacity of climate-vulnerable communities in remote, hard-to-reach areas, said a press release issued by Friendship.

Brigadier General Ilyas Iftekhar Rasul (retd), head of Friendship’s Education sector, said, “Friendship is working to educate marginalised people living in remote, hard-to-reach, and inaccessible areas of the country.

Through the use of adult education, Friendship has successfully contributed to adult education, and in preventing student dropout.”

He hopes the UNESCO Confucius Award will help the program gain further momentum and insists the honorarium from the award will be used for improving the adult literacy program.

It is worth noting that the government of China, through UNESCO, awards the Confucius Prize to three institutions, or countries, every year. Each award carries an honorarium of USD 30,000.