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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd"> <html lang="en" dir="ltr" xmlns:fb="https://ogp.me/ns/fb#" xmlns:og="https://ogp.me/ns#"> <head profile="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/vocab"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/sil-favicon_0.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" /> <meta name="description" content="If someone holds a book written in his own language but doesn’t know how to read the words, it’s like a starving person holding a fishing net without knowing how to use it. Although Ezekiel of the Menya people was not a prophet like his biblical namesake, he feels he has helped to open his people’s eyes to the value of literacy. [Click on photos to enlarge.] Ezekiel was chosen" /> <meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (https://www.drupal.org)" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.sil.org/blog/starving-literacy" /> <link rel="shortlink" href="https://www.sil.org/node/128326" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="SIL Global" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.sil.org/blog/starving-literacy" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Starving for Literacy" /> <meta property="og:description" content="If someone holds a book written in his own language but doesn’t know how to read the words, it’s like a starving person holding a fishing net without knowing how to use it. Although Ezekiel of the Menya people was not a prophet like his biblical namesake, he feels he has helped to open his people’s eyes to the value of literacy. [Click on photos to enlarge.] Ezekiel was chosen by a committee to attend a STEP (Strengthening Tokples* Education in Papua New Guinea) course." /> <meta property="og:updated_time" content="2021-12-06T09:56:54-06:00" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/starving_for_literacy.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:url" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/starving_for_literacy.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/starving_for_literacy.jpg" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@SILintl" /> <meta name="twitter:url" content="https://www.sil.org/blog/starving-literacy" /> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Starving for Literacy" /> <meta name="twitter:description" content="If someone holds a book written in his own language but doesn’t know how to read the words, it’s like a starving person holding a fishing net without knowing how to use it. Although Ezekiel of the" /> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/images/story/starving_for_literacy.jpg" /> <meta property="article:published_time" content="2017-10-25T09:43:03-05:00" /> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2021-12-06T09:56:54-06:00" /> <title>Starving for Literacy | SIL Global</title> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_lQaZfjVpwP_oGNqdtWCSpJT1EMqXdMiU84ekLLxQnc4.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_EM9PzeHZt2AxxQ3R05nXINg9akBOG66G3hxOgWtlp2E.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/css/css_y-6OGvqwgwpR259lzJYNwvxpJm3Q1qOD_DWt90goRpM.css" media="all" /> <style>.panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region { padding: 0; } .panels-flexible-new .panels-flexible-region-inside { padding-right: 0.5em; padding-left: 0.5em; } 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id="page-title"> </div> <a id="main-content"></a> <div class="region region-content"> <section id="block-system-main" class="block block-system clearfix"> <article id="node-128326" class="node node-blog node-promoted clearfix"> <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="img-responsive" src="https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_1140/public/images/story/starving_for_literacy.jpg?itok=pnWhN4zo" width="1140" height="597" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="view view-blog-post-masthead-information view-id-blog_post_masthead_information view-display-id-entity_view_1 text-center view-dom-id-b7fe50cd4b586d11ac8aacf8a30ab370"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last"> <div class="views-field views-field-title"> <h3 class="field-content">Starving for Literacy</h3> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <h6 class="field-content">by <span class="blog-post-author">Luci Tumas</span></h6> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-created"> <span class="field-content blog-post-post-date">25 October 2017</span> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-nothing"> <span class="field-content"><hr/></span> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> </p> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/ezekialmenyapatwhitehead.jpg"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/ezekialmenyapatwhitehead.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 205px; height: 154px;" /></a>If someone holds a book written in his own language but doesn’t know how to read the words, it’s like a starving person holding a fishing net without knowing how to use it.</p> <p>Although Ezekiel of the Menya people was not a prophet like his biblical namesake, he feels he has helped to open his people’s eyes to the value of literacy. [<em>Click on photos to enlarge</em>.]</p> <p>Ezekiel was chosen by a committee to attend a STEP (Strengthening Tokples* Education in Papua New Guinea) course. This course taught adults how to teach and establish preschools in their villages so children could learn to read and write in their own language before learning English in the government-run schools.</p> <p>During the STEP program, Ezekiel realized that the SIL linguist-translator team wouldn’t be with them forever. He said, “If anything lasting is going to happen in our Menya language, we have to do it.”</p> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/imgp0439patwhitehead.jpg"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/imgp0439patwhitehead.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: right; width: 150px; height: 113px;" /></a> After the five-module course held over 18 months, Ezekiel returned to his village and spoke with his relatives. Inspired, one of his relatives donated a plot of ground for coffee; the proceeds were allocated for literacy so their people could learn to read and write, including the Bible someday.</p> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/menyatokplespatwhitehead.png"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/menyatokplespatwhitehead.png" style="margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; float: left; width: 300px; height: 225px;" /></a></p> <p>Five Tokples* preschools were eventually established in the area with help from the money of the coffee garden. Many of the Elementary school teachers noticed that the children who attended the Tokples preschools first before entering English-taught schools did much better in school than those who had not.</p> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/teachertrainpatwhiteheadmenyadscf1485.jpg"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/teachertrainpatwhiteheadmenyadscf1485.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 250px; height: 188px; float: right;" /></a>Ezekiel trained other adults as teachers of the Tokples preschools. Some of these teachers, now literate in their mother tongue, later helped check the flow and fluency of the Menya New Testament translation.</p> <p>Because the government is now encouraging the use of tokples in the first years of school, Ezekiel is instrumental in teaching the elementary school teachers to read and teach in their own language. Recently fifty teachers attended a voluntary in-service course to develop their mother-tongue teaching skills.</p> <p>Because one man took action to make it possible for others to learn to read and write, the Menya now have those who are literate in their own language—and no longer starve for literacy.</p> <p>* Tokples - mother tongue</p> <p> Photographer: Pat Whitehead</p> </div></div></div> </article> </section> <section id="block-block-261" class="block block-block blog-footer-links blog-footer-links clearfix"> <p> </p> <hr /> <p><a class="btn btn-default text-center" href="/blog" role="button">Back to Blog</a></p> </section> </div> </section> </div> </div> <footer class="footer"> <div class="footer-top"> <div class="container"> <div class="region region-footer"> <section id="block-panels-mini-sil-bootstrap-footer-menu" class="block block-panels-mini clearfix"> <div class="panel-flexible panels-flexible-new clearfix" id="mini-panel-sil_bootstrap_footer_menu"> <div class="panel-flexible-inside panels-flexible-new-inside"> <div class="panels-flexible-row panels-flexible-row-new-main-row panels-flexible-row-first clearfix footer-links"> <div class="inside panels-flexible-row-inside panels-flexible-row-new-main-row-inside panels-flexible-row-inside-first clearfix"> <div class="panels-flexible-region panels-flexible-region-new-column_1 panels-flexible-region-first "> <div class="inside panels-flexible-region-inside panels-flexible-region-new-column_1-inside panels-flexible-region-inside-first"> <div class="panel-pane pane-block pane-block-276 pane-block footer-logo" > <div class="pane-content"> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/sil_logo_white.png" style="width: 100px; 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