FROM SENATOR JOYCE FAIRBAIRN

Dear Friends,

In this International Year of Volunteers, it is a privilege and delight to join the celebration for all of those thousands of Canadians who keep our literacy cause alive and moving on the ground in every city, town and village across this country.

Laubach is the largest volunteer literacy organization in Canada. Quite simply, the literacy movement in this country could not exist without you all, each one teaching one, at the level where people live and work and raise their families. I have seen you work. I have listened to your wisdom and been grateful for your advice. I have marveled at your kindness and generosity and creativity. And I have shared your tears-both of joy and sadness-which is all part of the cause we share.

For seventeen years you have welcomed me as member of your family, and inspired me to keep on marching on behalf of those who need our help.

I would like to give you a quick flashback to 1984 when my commitment to literacy began.

I had just become a Senator and one of my first assignments was to serve on a Special Committee on Youth. It was formed during a period of high youth unemployment and was sent across the country with a wide open mandate to hold public hearings. It was a good committee, and we heard about the challenges surrounding lack of jobs, drugs and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, disillusionment and family breakdown- all the issues we had anticipated.

But we heard something else which we did not expect and it shocked us. In every region of this nation, we heard about the problems with literacy and learning disabilities, resulting in young lives being scarred by fear and frustration and anger and humiliation and isolation and a total lack of self worth.

I was haunted by this revelation because my whole life had been based on words-reading, writing, speaking and understanding words. From my earliest childhood in Lethbridge, Alberta I have enjoyed the opportunity and the encouragement to learn these skills. I could not and cannot imagine daily life without them.

Very few politicians were speaking up for literacy on Parliament Hill in those days, so I decided to become a voice-as loudly and persistently as I could be-in the Senate, in my Party and anywhere across the country where people would listen. I began a debate in the Senate in 1987 on Literacy in Canada-the first time such a thing had occurred in either House of Parliament.

The very first invitation I received following that debate was from Laubach Literacy of Canada, to speak at a national meeting in Fredericton, New Brunswick. I was introduced that night by the now-legendary Dorothy Silver. It was a tremendous evening, and we have been firm friends ever since.

Those were the days when learners rarely spoke out because of the personal sensitivity around this intensely private issue. How things have changed. Today our learners are active within all our organizations and have become our own best teachers.

Those were the days when, sadly, many Canadians did not want to listen or even know about literacy problems. They just did not believe it could exist in this caring, prosperous country. Now the word is finally getting out that this is a national issue that must be tackled at every level.

Over the years, I have advocated constantly for literacy as a federal Cabinet Minister, a Leader of the Government in the Senate, and now as a special advisor on literacy to our Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart. But I still count myself as one of you, that marvelous army of volunteers whom I talk about with pride in every speech that I make. You are indeed the heart of the literacy movement in Canada.

I send my heartfelt thanks and best wishes to keep right on going with your wonderful work. And always remember that this volunteer is with you every step of the way.