access to our heart and mind. Likewise, literacy gives a person access to the heart and mind of society. People who are illiterate often complain that they feel deaf and dumb and excluded from society. Illiteracy also excludes people from society because of how it reinforces economic exclusion. Illiteracy and poverty are like brick and mortar that together form the wall that keeps millions of Haitians on the outside.

Beyond Borders continues to support literacy training for adults on Lagonav island through its partnership with the Association of Community Organizers of Lagonav (AAPLAG). Nearly 400 participants completed their second and third years of the program this summer. Along with a number of other books, these participants will receive the new Haitian Bible, which uses the modern Creole spelling system. Another 618 new students started their first year of literacy training on August 12. Several representatives from the AAPLAG literacy program will be traveling to the northwest of Haiti in December to visit a literacy initiative there and share their experience.

In addition to its financial support of the AAPLAG literacy initiative, Beyond Borders continues to assist the Rotalpha project, which is training literacy instructors in a number of geographic regions of Haiti and is publishing several native-language books for new adult readers. Their newest book to be published is a collection of stories written by literacy center participants themselves. Imagine the excitement of not only learning to read and write, but also having your words published for others all over the country to read!