Canadian NGO CODE Partner, Associacao Progresso, Wins UNESCO's 2015 King Sejong International Literacy Prize

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 8, 2015) - CODE's 25-year partner in Mozambique, Associação Progresso, is one of 5 winners of the 2015 UNESCO International Literacy Prizes. This year, on International Literacy Day, September 8, 2015, Associação Progresso will be recognized for excellence and innovation in regard to its 'Literacy in Local Language, a Springboard for Gender Equality' program. The King Sejong Literacy Prize which includes a monetary award of US$20,000, a silver medal and certificate will be presented to Progresso at an awards ceremony hosted by UNESCO at their headquarters in Paris, France tonight.

Progresso is a non-profit organization that has been a strong voice in advocating the importance of quality education in Mozambique and continually acts to improve its accessibility and delivery. For nearly two decades, as part of its efforts, it has specifically focused on using literacy to promote changes to practices that are harmful to women and girls and thereby create opportunities for them to develop their capacity to improve their own living standards. Progresso was also awarded the UNESCO International Reading Association Literacy Prize in 2005.

"We are exceptionally proud of what Progresso has accomplished over the years in the field of literacy and learning and the fact that they are being recognized for their exemplary work for the second time by UNESCO, is motivating for us all," shared Scott Walter, CODE's Executive Director. "We have a long history of working with Progresso in Mozambique to successfully advance literacy and education and empowering individuals with the basic human right of access to education and the ability to read and write. We share the belief that an educated people are an empowered people. CODE looks forward to our on-going relationship with Progresso in delivering programming that will continue to transform education in Mozambique."

This year's International Literacy Day theme is Literacy and Sustainable Societies, which explores critical links and synergy between literacy and the future Sustainable Development Goals which will be adopted during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.

For more information about Progresso and UNESCO's Literacy Prize or to further empower CODE and Progresso in their work award winning work in literacy and education, please visit www.codecan.org.

About CODE

With over 55 years of continued success, CODE is Canada's leading international development agency uniquely focused on advancing literacy and education in some of the world's regions in greatest need. By acting to establish and ignite engaging learning environments through the development and publishing of locally authored and designed children books, training teachers and teacher-librarians, resourcing libraries as well as distributing significant numbers of high quality reading materials, CODE focuses on inspiring young minds to improve their literacy and comprehension with the hope that they become critical thinkers and life-long learners, all in working towards nurturing a literate civil society. www.codecan.org.