This Christmas, if you, your department or your company are looking for a way to give back, Alta is the place for you.
For $600 a year, you, your co-workers or company can sponsor an Alta student and help them learn to read and write.
While Alta classes are free for students and tutors are volunteers, providing effective instruction for one student for one year is costly.
In T&T today, if you are not literate, you are left out of life.
Literacy is the key to a good job, access to services, participation in community, school and church.
One out of four adults in T&T is unable to perform basic, everyday reading and writing skills.
Less than half the adult population can read and understand the newspapers and simple medicine labels.
Sponsoring a student helps Alta, as it covers the cost of training and equipping the teacher, providing materials for the students, advertising so that students know about the classes, record keeping, and enabling guidance from Alta for the class teachers and administration.
One can opt to sponsor a specific student if one knows anyone enrolled in the Alta Programme, or sponsor a student taking Alta classes in one's community.
Or Alta can pick a student for a sponsor.
In October 2017, sponsors will receive a progress report highlighting their student's achievements, and recommendations for further advancement.
Should a sponsor's student be unable to continue Alta classes, Alta will assign another student.
In addition to providing the funds to keep Alta going, the Sponsor-a-Student project aims to foster a better understanding of literacy issues among citizens, while affording sponsors the satisfaction of sharing the successes of learners as they progress through the levels of the Alta programme to enter the world of reading and writing.
If you're interested in sponsoring an Alta student, give them a call at 624-2582 or send them a message on Facebook (Alta TT).
Alta is open from 8 am - 5 pm, Monday to Thursday and 8 am - 4 pm on Fridays.
'Tis the season for giving...help Alta by sponsoring one of their students.