The Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goal (SDG) 10 aims to re­duce in­equal­i­ties, and AL­TA, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion ded­i­cat­ed to im­prov­ing lit­er­a­cy, plays a piv­otal role in this glob­al ef­fort.

AL­TA’s mis­sion is deeply in­ter­twined with the ob­jec­tives of SDG 10. By fo­cus­ing on lit­er­a­cy, AL­TA ad­dress­es one of the root caus­es of in­equal­i­ty, ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion.

Lit­er­a­cy em­pow­ers in­di­vid­u­als, en­abling them to par­tic­i­pate ful­ly in so­ci­ety and ac­cess bet­ter eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties.

AL­TA’s theme for this year is “We are an AL­TA­na­tion.” One of our stu­dents, Laque­da, shares her ex­pe­ri­ence of be­ing a part of the AL­TA­na­tion: “AL­TA is con­tribut­ing to the de­vel­op­ment of the coun­try by help­ing adults to ful­ly com­pre­hend lit­er­a­cy and im­prove in weak ar­eas, go­ing step by step so that per­sons will be able to progress in their lives.”

AL­TA of­fers com­pre­hen­sive pro­grammes tai­lored to peo­ple from di­verse back­grounds, fo­cus­ing not just on read­ing and writ­ing, but al­so on fos­ter­ing self-con­fi­dence and in­de­pen­dence. “My par­tic­i­pa­tion in AL­TA is help­ing me to achieve my pur­pose be­cause now I can use what I have learned to func­tion with con­fi­dence in pub­lic places,” adds Laque­da.

Through ini­tia­tives such as com­mu­ni­ty and on­line lit­er­a­cy class­es that are free of charge, AL­TA en­sures that ed­u­ca­tion is ac­ces­si­ble to all, re­gard­less of their so­cio-eco­nom­ic sta­tus. If you or some­one you know is in­ter­est­ed in AL­TA class­es, you can reg­is­ter on Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 3, at your near­est NALIS pub­lic li­brary.

AL­TA stu­dent, Phyl­lis Bona­parte re­calls, “I trav­elled to Cana­da re­cent­ly, and on­ly be­cause of AL­TA I was able to fill out the im­mi­gra­tion form at the kiosk. AL­TA­na­tion has giv­en us the op­por­tu­ni­ty to have an ed­u­ca­tion.” This high­lights AL­TA’s role in em­pow­er­ing in­di­vid­u­als who have strug­gled with lit­er­a­cy to nav­i­gate every­day tasks with con­fi­dence.

An­oth­er stu­dent Curlan Ash states, “As I got old­er I re­alised that Eng­lish was stop­ping me from learn­ing a new skill or even open­ing a busi­ness. Af­ter start­ing AL­TA my con­fi­dence is grow­ing, and I am will­ing to do more. My as­pi­ra­tions are to pass Eng­lish with a dis­tinc­tion and to start to write my first book.”

By pro­vid­ing a sup­port­ive, non-judg­men­tal en­vi­ron­ment, AL­TA im­proves lit­er­a­cy skills and qual­i­ty of life, AL­TA breaks down ed­u­ca­tion­al bar­ri­ers, em­pow­er­ing in­di­vid­u­als and re­duc­ing in­equal­i­ties.

For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact us at 624-2582 or email Al­ta­pos.tt@gmail.com. Stay con­nect­ed with AL­TA on Face­book, Twit­ter, and In­sta­gram (@Al­ta_TT) for up­dates and in­spir­ing sto­ries from our learn­ers.