Brasília, December 4, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The president of the Council of the Solidary Community Program, Ruth Cardoso, and the superintendent of the Solidary Literacy Program, Regina Esteves, signed an agreement today to renew the contractual partnership between Brasil Telecom and Solidary Literacy. The purpose is to provide financing for literacy courses for 1,500 adults in 6 Brazilian municipalities in Mato Grosso (MT) and Tocantins (TO). Each month R$ 17 (US$ 4.65) will be spent on each student, for the 6-month duration of the unit.

In all, the program has already served 3.6 million students in 2,010 municipalities. Solidary Literacy currently receives support from 100 partner enterprises and 204 partner universities, and it has trained more than 150 thousand literacy instructors throughout the country. (DAS)