Education
![Severino Jovino de Lima learns literacy skills at makeshift classes held at his workplace [Marcella Haddad]](/var/storage/images/media_folder/cafod/images/international_images/latin_america_caribbean/brazil/construction_worker_at_night_school/5300-2-eng-GB/construction_worker_at_night_school_3column00_nospace_landscape.jpg)
"Education for all" is an international ideal, but in some developing countries, education is a luxury
“I come from the countryside,” says Severino. “I used to get up early every day to work in the fields under the hot sun. I didn’t have the energy to learn."
In rich countries, people have an average of ten years of schooling; in developing countries the average is four. Parents cannot afford the costs and, even if it is free, children are often needed to work to help the family income. Poor transport and long distances to school make it even more difficult to attend.
Severino has now learned to read and write thanks to a group of volunteers who hold classes at building sites to give basic education to construction workers in the Paraíba area of Brazil.
“It has changed my life. I want my son to go to school, because I don’t want him to go through what I went through. I want him to study and maybe he will be a doctor one day.”
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