International Literacy and Development

In 2024, International Literacy and Development conducted activities in 13 countries. Jordan, Azerbaijan, Oman, Togo, Guinea, China, Ukraine, India, Georgia, the United States, Sierra Leone, Egypt, and Honduras. Within many of these countries, there are multiple projects and programs promoting human flourishing through educational, economic, and social development. In the Middle East, ILAD staff is focused on literacy and life-skills education among an overlooked, underserved minority language group. Over 70 people have benefited from the work. Micro enterprise: Seven women entrepreneurs were involved in creating and running a jewelry micro-enterprise that provides steady, supplemental income for their families. In addition to these seven women, six more were involved in a special impact project. Literacy: Using the alphabet created and tested in 2021, there are currently 2 women's literacy classes and 3 study groups being held. These classes and groups are learning to read in both the local language and the language of wider use. Health: ILAD staff offers information and training in maternal and newborn care on an as-needed basis. Social: ILAD staff meets with women and men in groups to discuss ways to improve their personal and community relationships. Language Development: 1 language development project underway to provide oral, written, and digital resources for a different minority language community in the region. In Central Asia, In Central Asia, ILAD established an informal school to serve refugees and low-resourced people in need of an education. The school worked with 18 adult and child students in Azerbaijan and 3 children in Afghanistan, representing four nationalities. Relief: 400+ Ukrainian and Roma people were taught tactical first aid in order to serve those injured in the ongoing conflict. Each of the participants received first aid kits. In a West African nation, ILAD staff continue to train farmers on new Demonstration Farm that was established in 2023 to teach organic pineapple agriculture and production. This rural program is patterned after the current demonstration farm and includes agricultural training, social business management, and agro- credit programming. In the Arabian Peninsula and another Caucasus Region country, ILAD staff are researching language and culture, conducting market analysis, and developing projects.

Human Language Technology Global: ILAD continued advancing the field of Human Language Technology through data collection, app development, and the creation of translation development tools, with the goal of providing access to information to low-resource language communities through machine translation. In 2024, ILAD consistently worked on a variety of projects for multiple language communities throughout the world. Examples include: Gatehouse - a simple Windows program for bulk document translation Alfalfa - a simple app for Rohingya adults learning English basics GoHighLevel - a Customer Relationship Management platform for ILAD's BDCs Aster - speech-to-text and text-to-speech systems for Rohingya Woolaroo for Rutul - a picture dictionary app for the Rutul in Central Asia Beja Project - HLT apps and services for the Beja people in North Africa Laurel - a prototype to demonstrate what an end user app could look like once the underlying technologies have been developed