Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Illiteracy




"What is this?", he asked me in Dagbani, holding a bill of 20 cedis in the air.









I have been doing business with Iddrisu before, but he had never asked me such a question before. Had he never seen a bill of 20 cedis before?

Iddrisu can't read or write, I knew that, but now it appears he can't read numbers neither. Then how does he determine which amount of money I have given him?

For the first time, I pay careful attention to his way of counting the money and I guess he really has to concentrate on the colors of the bills, knowing that red is 1 cedi, blue is 5 and green is 10. So today he got to know that purple is 20. I am happy that he believes me on my word and doesn't think that I counterfeit money.

--
35% of the population is illiterate in Ghana (unicef)
to my personal experience is, this amount is even higher in the Northern Region.
Help us fight against illiteracy and send a child to school!

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