The adult literacy rate in Bangladesh averages at about 50%, and in rural districts that drops considerably. Amongst women it drops even further.
Our work in schools reaches to distant village areas, often on the banks or on the islands of Bangladesh's huge rivers. In these area, school availability is limited and adult literacy is low. Many children do not start school and among those that do there is a 50% drop-out rate by class 5. This is usually to do with the need for the children to earn money.
Our focus is the adults who have never been able to learn to read and write and the children who have not entered schools and now grown well beyond their class age.