The Non-literate Access to Life Saving Awareness – NALSA

The Non-Literates Access to Life Saving Awareness (NALSA) is the principal development strategy of the Oromo Development and Assistance Association IODAA). The NALSA initiative is aimed at removing the inherent obstacle non-literate individuals and communities experience when accessing life-saving instructions from text-based resources. ODAA achieves this by integrating instructional technologies into grass root development efforts.

The NALSA initiative keeps stigma at bay. By taking into account the cultural sensitivity of some life-endangering diseases and situations, the NALSA initiative provides opportunities for the non-literate to access the life-saving awareness wherever and whenever they think they are safe from potential stigma. ODAA believes that this empowers the benefiting non-literates as it provides them with the opportunity to choose the time and space they are comfortable with to access and learn from the life-saving instructions.

The NALSA initiative is a rights issue. ODAA believes that accessing non-text based instructional materials is the right of the non-literate people. Even thought text-based instructions are good for the literate, such are not accessible by the non-literate. The NALSA initiative is designed to remove this obstacle.