This photo seems like such a basic (everyday occurance for most of us really) but it was SO inspiring for me to watch happen -- it is the first text message of my friend who is essentially illiterate. It is incredible to watch someone learn a skill that they never knew before and watch how happy it makes them!

This is a screen shot of a text message that my friend in Morocco wrote me — her first text message yes — but also her first experience reading and writing. Although she learned the letters in a class on Combatting Illiteracy sponsored by the Moroccan government, she never learned to read letters linked together and never learned how to read or write whole sentences. Now, thanks to an iPhone she doesn’t have to – the iPhone connects the letters automatically, which is a big deal in Arabic where letters look quite different depending on their location in the word.

Mobile technology to combat illiteracy? Yes! How can we make this a possibility for more people? Obviously it takes tutoring and support — but it also really can work! There is also a huge inherent desire to text and communicate with others that provides a real incentive to literacy for older Moroccan women that they don't find in their combatting illiteracy courses. 

This is definitely a text message I will treasure!