A woman teaching other women to read – GILLBT photo

Today is International Women’s Day. Research into translation and literacy in the many languages of Ghana shows that women who become literate in their mother tongue:

• Are more likely to express their opinions in their families and communities
• Are much more likely to have all their children enrolled in school
• Are more likely to undertake new initiatives, such as starting small businesses

Women who read the Bible in their mother tongue are:

• More likely to share their faith
• More likely to have a positive sense of self-worth
• More likely to abandon traditional beliefs and practices which keep them in fear and poverty

Wider research shows that infant mortality is halved for women in Africa who learn to read, perhaps because they can then read the instructions on medicine containers.

Bible translation and the accompanying literacy efforts, it turns out, have very practical outcomes for marginalized, poor women.