Learning World

Learning to read in a month Great success for non-formal learning centres in Madagascar In just one month Jocelyn, 12, has learnt to read. He is attending one of Madagascar’s 260 learning centres scattered in villages in the poor provinces of Fianarantsoa, Majunga, Tamatave and Toliara. The centre is Jocelyn’s first contact with an educational institution. Like many children living in rural Madagascar, Jocelyn’s parents, who are farmers, could not afford to send him to school. “I hope the courses won’t stop. I want to continue to learn,” Jocelyn says, while proudly reading to his parents from his book. More

A restaurant with a difference A UNESCO programme is helping young people make Hanoi a better place to grow up in Four days a week, Vu Van Hieu, 19, a former shoeshine boy, greets international visitors in KOTO, a restaurant situated close to one of Hanoi’s most famous cultural sites. At the age of 16, Hieu left his home in the northern province of Hung Yen and since then had eked out a living shoe shining in the Vietnamese capital. “I had to work fourteen hours a day just to earn $1,” he says, adding that sometimes customers refused to pay him. More