This powerful A-Z is aimed at eradicating illiteracy around the world

Model, actress and activist Lily Cole launched Project Literacy’s Alphabet of Illiteracy at the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The project is aimed to highlight world development issues and how they are related to illiteracy, and by 2030, their goal is to ensure that no child is at risk of illiteracy (in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals).

In addition, an online petition has been set up with the hopes that enough signatories can push the issue of illiteracy back to the top of UN priorities.

Cole, speaking at the House of Commons said:

I have a baby who's just starting to make different sounds and the idea that she's going to learn the full alphabet felt to me as inevitable as her growing teeth. Unfortunately this is not a reality in this country.

According to Unesco 757 million adults are illiterate, and of those 122 million are youth (aged 15-24). To add to that, it is estimated that one in five British children cannot read or write well by the time they leave primary school.

The Project Literacy website has collated data and research based on illiteracy rates, and compiled them into the form of an alphabet, where each letter represents a problem.

Accessing the research is simple: you click on a letter and then use your keyboard to navigate.

'A' is for Aids, 'B' is for bloodshed, 'C' is for child brides, and so on, all the way until 'Z', which stands for zero options.

Some of the images are more harrowing than others, made worse by their child-like nature.

F is for Female Genital Mutilation, because in some of the affected areas more than 80 per cent of the women effected are illiterate, Lily says.

The website also has informative facts and figures about each reason, such as 'I', about infant mortality rates:

All images via the Project Illiteracy website

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