Weekly Report - 18 March 2010 (WR-10-11)

EL SALVADOR | Literacy. The government has launched an initiative to reduce illiteracy by 18% by 2014, Vice-president Salvador Sánchez Cerén, who is also education minister, announced this week. The programme, “Educating for Life", was inaugurated in the western town of Izalco, where Sánchez said indigenous communities had been marginalised for years. He said the initiative was a crucial part of the fight against poverty and exclusion, which President Mauricio Funes made clear in his meeting with his US peer Barack Obama in Washington last week were the root causes of crime and insecurity in the country. The initiative, which will establish a national volunteer network and include technical and professional training, will target 65 of the country's poorest municipalities.