Somalia's Rural Literacy Campaign

Published: Jan. 12, 2015, 8:50 a.m.

Only a fraction of Somalia's population could read or write in the early 1970s. So the military government launched a hugely ambitious literacy campaign.

What was unusual was that many of the teachers were schoolchildren - sent into the countryside to teach adults.

Hear from one of those teachers - Abdirahman Abtidon - who was 14 at the time.

(Photo: Literacy class in 1974.)