Today we welcome a special guest post by Aadhya Dhungana – a Grade 8 student, blogger, Girl Guide and volunteer. Aadhya explains what literacy means to her and demonstrates a beautiful example of our Literacy Month Word Cloud.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word literacy? Reading and writing are what many people think. Yes, reading and writing are literacy, but literacy is more than that. From the time we are born until our last breath, we need literacy to do many things.

“To me, literacy doesn’t just mean having the ability to read and write. It means making sense of various things in the world and applying those things to make life easier.”

Knowing how to pay credit card bills, understanding health issues or knowing where to go when we are ill is all literacy. There are countless examples of literacy activities: understanding the use of technology and navigating information online, talking to people, reading maps, newspapers, reading labels, and playing word games. Literacy is essential to our everyday lives, careers and to improve our quality of life. It empowers us and gives us the independence to make good choices.

To me, literacy doesn’t just mean having the ability to read and write. It means making sense of various things in the world and applying those things to make life easier. It is the happiness that I get by learning many different things.

Literacy is important to us in various ways, and the meaning could be diverse to individuals when they are in different stages of their lives.

People who don’t have basic literacy skills are more likely to be discriminated against. They will have to face more challenges in their lives and will miss out on many opportunities. Literacy is a fundamental human right, and no one should be deprived of it.