Australian literacy program based on Cuban example

Militant/Joanne Kuniansky

SYDNEY — “We are always ready to help,” said Cuban literacy teacher José Chala Leblanch, above right, Jan. 8 as he was welcomed back to Australia. “That’s what Cuba has been doing the last 50 years, and in return we have solidarity everywhere.”

Chala pioneered the “Yes I Can” Aboriginal adult literacy program in the outback town of Wilcannia in 2012. He has returned as an adviser for the expansion of the program, organized by the Literacy for Life Foundation in Brewarrina, 600 miles northwest of Sydney.

The effort draws on the experience of the Cuban Revolution’s successful literacy campaign in 1961, as well as the Cuban program developed in Grenada during the revolution there in the early 1980s. “It expands people’s minds,” Chala said. One student told him it was “the best thing that happened to his community.” Participants gain confidence, he added, and “want to talk politics at 3 a.m. in the morning!”

The success of “Yes I Can” where government courses have failed to improve literacy is due to the way it is organized with the involvement of the Aboriginal community. “You have to listen and learn,” the Cuban teacher said. “Every community is different.”

In Brewarrina, where more than two-thirds of the 1,500 residents are Aboriginal, there is high unemployment, so one of the next steps is preparing students to get jobs.

The informal gathering of 50 people, in a small room at a bar here, was hosted by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society.

— LINDA HARRIS