Episode 39: “One Key to Literacy: Sharing Folktales”

Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Program, and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy interviews DePaul graduate and Pangea Educational Development co-founder Drew Edwards. Drew and his colleagues in Uganda, with the support of many volunteers, have developed a remarkable literacy program in Uganda that works with refugees and internally displaced persons to engage the entire family in learning to read. In this final episode of this three-part series, Drew explains how the program invited local story tellers to share traditional folk stories and subsequently transformed those stories into children’s books for families to read together.

ACTION STEPS

1. If you would like to share your skill with Pangea, go to its website and learn how you can contribute your wisdom and talents. https://pangeaeducation.org

2. As Pope Francis told Drew Edwards, “Do more.”

RESOURCES

1. Pangea responds to Pope Francis call to encourage teaching: “Opportunities for meaningful encounters are to be promoted, so that teachers and students can have an opportunity to hear the stories of those men and women who are migrants, refugees, displaced persons or victims of trafficking.” Further these programs can “help identity and indicate the foundations for the construction of an intercultural society, in which ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity is seen as a source of enrichment and not an obstacle for the common future.” “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to Participants in the Meeting on Refugees Promoted by the Pontifical Gregorian University, September 29, 2022. 2. For more information on Pangea Education, see: https://pangeaeducation.org

3. For more information on how Pangea work in publishing local folk stories to increase literacy see “Behind the Books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SD8HvkBm30

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