B*N*S*N1

US Army photo

RAMADI — A middle-aged Iraqi woman, widowed and a mother of two young children, walks into a cream-colored concrete classroom filled with women of all ages. The woman, draped in a black abaya, sits down in a wooden desk-chair and gazes at the instructor with a look of determination and conviction. She knows, along with the other women in the classroom, she must learn to read and write if she is going to continue to support and properly care for her two children and has taken the initial steps in bettering her family and herself. Women’s Literacy Program classes are held daily at four locations in the city of Ramadi, and are designed to teach illiterate women how to read and write Arabic, while also teaching more educated women the fundamentals of English. The program is divided into three levels, said Falah Daud Suleiman, an Iraqi instructor at one of the programs. The first level is for people who don’t know how to read or write. The second level is for those who know how to read and write, but require additional teaching so they can become proficient. The third level is for those who are proficient in the Arabic language but desire to learn English....(read more here)