Empowering women farmers in China
	A UNESCO literacy programme boosts rural women's confidence and helps them become community leaders

	Beautiful and productive courtyard is the story of Qiaozhen, a poor woman who lives with her family in a small village in rural China. After attending literacy classes at night school where she also learns about farming techniques, she is able to convince her husband that diversifying crops in their courtyard would make it more productive. Over time, they start growing a wide variety of vegetables – enough to feed their family and to sell in the local market – and significantly increase their income. Qiaozhen’s success motivates other women in the village to follow her example. She seems so real, yet Qiozhen is a fictional character! Her story is part of a series of booklets that cover various topics, from health and agriculture to women’s rights. The booklets are locally-produced learning material for “Multi-Channel Literacy for Women Farmers,” a UNESCO-led functional literacy programme in Yunnan, Xinjiang and Guizhou, three of the most impoverished provinces in western China. A difficult life Life is not easy for women farmers in some rural areas in China. They live in regions where low literacy rates combined with a harsh geographic environment result in poor health conditions, scarcity of clean drinking water and limited access to electricity and information. “Life is one long cycle of cooking, cleaning, washing and farm work,” says Namtip Aksornkool of UNESCO Paris, “Women have no time to rest, no time to complain.” The Multi-Channel Literacy programme is designed to help rural middle-aged women with minimal education. Through captivating drawings and easy-to-read text, booklets like Health of mother and baby and Scientific Breeding brings benefit provide Chinese women farmers with effective learning materials that teach reading skills and enhance rural productivity at the same time. Local artists and authors produce the texts and drawings for the learning materials, thus making the booklets relevant to the lives of the learners. Heroines like Qiozhen, who improve their lives through non-formal education, serve as models for the new readers. The Chinese programme is based on the “Educate to Empower Model,” an approach to literacy developed by UNESCO that incorporates women’s empowerment into learning programmes. Over the past 15 years, UNESCO has successfully launched similar programmes in other countries in Africa and Asia and the Pacific. The model works on the assumption that literacy materials alone do not guarantee an improvement in women’s productivity, but that education for development must reinforce women’s self esteem at the same time. These programmes promote the role of women as good wives and mothers, productive workers and active members of society. “The idea” says Aksornkool, “is that literacy boosts these women’s confidence in themselves and in their abilities. At the same time, the courses build their capacity to take advantage of opportunities that can lead to financial and psychological independence.” Improving women’s lives Real-life examples of how the project has changed women farmers’ lives are numerous. For example, Ding Huiping is a 43-year-old farmer from Dalong, a remote village in Yunnan province, who could not read or write for the first 40 years of her life. In 2003, she decided to join her village’s multi-channel literacy class. Before long, Ding was literate and skilled in planting flowers. She now plants rice, roses and lilies, and this crop diversification has allowed her to obtain a significant annual income. “Through the process of gaining literacy, Ding Huiping has grown into an empowered woman,” says Aksornkool, “Now she is serving as a model for the rest of her community.” In Dalong, the programme is having its desired effect. Following her example, over 100 families in Ding Huiping’s village have begun planting flowers. A ripple effect Empowering women creates a ripple effect that cannot be stopped. Initially, the lives of women like Ding Huiping and those of her family are changed. A large number of women reported a positive change in their position, a louder voice in family decision-making, and progress in the communities’ attitude to women’s education. The momentum of empowerment then spreads to the level of the village and eventually the nation. Such efforts clearly play an important role in the development of China, comments Yasuyuki Aoshima, the Director of UNESCO’s Beijing Office. “I am extremely optimistic about China’s future because the government considers rural education to be an extremely important issue,” he says. Aoshima believes that women farmers will fare better in the future. “It is my hope,” he says, “that the Chinese government will be able to disseminate lessons learnt in China to other countries with rural populations.” Contact: Namtip Aksornkool, UNESCO Paris E-mail:n.aksornkool@unesco.org website: http://www.unesco.org/education/literacy
	http://www.unesco.org/education/literacy