Imagine you’ve been rushed to the hospital. Your spiked fever has you alternating between shivering chills and sweat-inducing heat, and every inhale you take feels like you’re fighting a twenty-pound bag of rocks on your chest. All you want is to feel better, but before hospital staff can admit you to a room and show you to a doctor, you must fill out a patient admission form.
A form you can’t understand because you never learned to read.
In ways big and small, our ability to read affects how we understand and communicate. Whether we’re trying to document what symptoms we’re experiencing on a patient form or simply looking at arrival times at a bus stop, understanding written words matters. The World Literacy Foundation reports that individuals with low literacy levels are more likely to experience poor health, low self-esteem, and economic poverty. In addition, an individual’s faith may be negatively impacted by low literacy levels by preventing him or her from being able to read Scripture.
“People don’t just miss a day when they lack literacy, they miss a lifetime of experiences,” said Dan Kramer. A fifteen-year veteran of the Bible translation industry, Dan serves as Our Daily Bread Ministries’ Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. “We wanted to solve this.”
“People don’t just miss a day when they lack literacy, they miss a lifetime of experiences.”
That’s why in 2021, Dan and his team created the Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) Literacy Program, which teaches students to read English through biblical materials in just one year. Resources include Bible stories and over 400 Our Daily Bread devotions modified for different reading levels.
Dan and his team piloted their first literacy classes in Tanzania in 2022. Since then, more than ten thousand students of all ages have learned English in the African countries of Rwanda, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Burundi, and Zimbabwe.
“The Literacy Program is one of the most powerful tools we have had here in our schools,” said John Warioba, a Relations Officer for Tumaini Jipya Girls Secondary School on Ukerewe Island in Tanzania. His school has partnered with the ODBM Literacy Program since it opened in 2022. There, the program makes up their students’ entire English curriculum and encourages the girls—and staff—to read. “In Tanzania, we don’t have that culture of reading, and the issue of illiteracy is still high in our country. Now, our girls’ reading level is up. They can talk well. When you talk to them, they understand what you’re saying, and they’re not only learning English but also connecting with God.”
"Now, our girls’ reading level is up. They can talk well. When you talk to them, they understand what you’re saying, and they’re not only learning English but also connecting with God.”
One of these girls is Angelina. A second-year student, Angelina can often be found singing with the choir and reading aloud devotions with her classmates. Her newfound love of literacy has inspired her to become a doctor. “Knowing English can help me to communicate or interact with different people in different nations,” she said. “I want to be like Dorcas from the Bible because she was a very kind woman, taking care of the other women.”
But ODBM isn’t just partnering with schools to inspire individuals like Angelina.
“We’re using this program in African prisons. We’re using it in churches, and we also have plans to start using this in orphanages,” said Dan. “We’re also beginning to translate it into other languages, but there’s a lot more work to do.”
With your help, we can continue spreading the ODBM Literacy Program across Africa and bring it to new countries. Learn more about supporting here.
