An 87-year-old woman in Menoufia Governorate took a literacy test as part of the “No Illiteracy with Takaful” initiative, which is carried out by the Social Solidarity Ministry, aiming to eradicate illiteracy from the families of the Takaful social protection programme.
Zubaida Abdel Aal further dreams of continuing her education now that she has obtained a certificate of literacy. She also hopes to help educate anyone who has a desire to learn.
Zubaida is the mother of eight children: four sons, and four daughters. A son and a daughter passed away. She is also a grandmother of thirteen grandchildren and a granddaughter.
She was not educated at a young age. She is the daughter of a man who did not see the importance of female education. After her father’s death, she insisted that her sisters attend school and she stood up next to them until they actually achieved it.
Zubaida got married at the age of eighteen and gave birth to her children and was keen on educating them, as she used to sell some simple goods in front of her children’s school out of keenness to take care of them and also out of fear that they might drop out of schooling.
She had a longing for learning, trying at times to imitate her children while they exercised writing.
The class facilitator began communicating with the beneficiaries of the conditional cash support programme “Takaful and Karama” since September 2022 and offered Zubaida to join the classes. She agreed immediately and began her classes.
Menoufia Governorate began working on the “No Illiteracy with Takaful” initiative on July 1, 2022, seeking to make the literacy effort inclusive of all of “Takaful and Karama” beneficiaries.
The initiative has already succeeded in opening nearly 9,000 literacy classes nationwide from the beginning of July to the end of last December.
