Vanda da Silva Cezário is 81 years old and, throughout her life, depended on other people to read a sign, a message, or a piece of paper for her.
Her son was the one who did it for her. When she lost him, she was left without that help and decided it was time to learn on her own. Today, she attends classes in Goiânia, Brazil, on Mondays and Wednesdays, in a free literacy program run by Instituto Yduqs.
Her first big goal is to open the Bible and read it without asking anyone for help. And she has already started achieving things: she signs her name correctly, checks bus schedules, reads some messages, and even makes her medical appointments.
She lives with pain throughout her body and doesn’t hide it: “Pain is no greater than my desire to learn”. And her plans don’t end there: according to what she told the newspaper O Popular, she wants to keep studying to become a lawyer or a judge.