The history of this program, PAR, is one of solidarity and commitment fueled by  UATRE. It was not born overnight but through a process based on the needs expressed by workers themselves. It was born from the rank and file, from dialogue with people in the countryside.

Gerónimo Venegas, general secretary of the Argentinean Union of Rural Workers and Dockers (UATRE), states:] “Many of our brothers and sisters in the countryside used to work during childhood and did not have a chance to attend school, and hundreds of them did not learn to read and write. Of course the root of the problem must be tackled, which is child work, but it is also necessary to give a response to those adults who did not have basic education during childhood”.

And the union was swift to react. In 2002, a pilot experience was conducted, through which the first five PAR Centers were established. During that year 109 people learnt how to read and write. Since that year until late 2010, 1,564 PAR centers had been created, and the number of rural workers who became literate throughout the country during that period was 40,283.

This is certainly a unique experience in terms of scope and size, and unique in the union environment, where in general the action of unions does not go beyond economic interest or beyond the limits of the factory or the plantation, as appropriate.

“Many people believe -added Venegas-   that union action and commitment begin and end in the struggle for better salaries and working conditions of members. But also many of us, with our work, have been demonstrating that a union is much more than an entity only aimed at increasing the salaries of workers”.

The number of new literate persons can be interpreted in some paradoxical ways. It gives us an idea of the neglect and exclusion of rural population, the lack of public policies, but at the same time it tells us how extraordinary the working capacities of UATRE are, the fantastic group of activist women who travel thousands of kilometers throughout the country, taking part in the program where the illiterate person is not considered an object to be made literate but a person and the main player in her or his own transformation process.

More than 40,000 persons who became literate give us the idea of the effort and the size of the job still to be performed for the dignification of the rural families. In the words of Venegas: “It is necessary to continue working, among other things, so that there are no rural children working and no illiterate workers”.