Cuba’s Assistance Highlighted in Paraguayan Literacy Campaign

Cuba's Assistance Highlighted in Paraguayan Literacy CampaignAsunción, Sep 10. -The disinterested help of Cuba was highlighted in this capital at the official launching of a National Literacy Campaign, as part of the program Paraguay Reads and Writes.

Paraguayan Presidency Minister Miguel López Perito recalled that the educational project began in 2003, when famous writer Augusto Roa Bastos visited the Caribbean island and brought the proposal of implementing the Cuban program "Yo Si Puedo" to Paraguay.

For different reasons, the idea could not be carried out, because of circumstances beyond our control, he expressed, and pointed out that the conditions now are much better for its implementation.

"Today is the official launching of this campaign led by the National Ministry of Culture in coordination with the Ministry of Education, and with diverse public and private entities," he assured.

López Perito explained that the structure of the campaign will be similar to the one activated in other countries "because it is the way to get to the people much more massively, and that is the way we need to attack this problem".

Lopez Perito manifested that the Ministry of Education estimates the number of Paraguayans who do not know how to read and write at about 250,000 people, but he considered that the figure can be much bigger.

Questioned by Prensa Latina, the official stated that the help of Cuba to Paraguay "has always been disinterested, given in solidarity, and radically committed, as is the case of the formation of the young Paraguayans in Cuban universities".

On the support to the National Literacy Campaign he commented that the Cuban collaboration included materials and advice.

"We have had the opportunity to work with Cuban experts in this topic, but fundamentally the most important thing is the Cuban government's attitude of solidarity," he stressed.

In that sense he said that the collaboration with Paraguay has been expressed by former ambassador Adolfo Curbelo, who participated in this and other activities like the installation of an opthalmological hospital in María Auxiliadora, department of Itapúa.

"This is a long-held dream by President Fernando Lugo and together we dreamt of this moment during the whole process of the campaign, when we proposed that eliminating illiteracy be a priority of this government", he commented.(Prensa Latina)