On 18th April, 2020, Armene Modi was awarded the prestigious Albert Shweitzer Medal, at the ‘World Literacy Summit 2020’, in recognition of both – her academic excellence and extensive service to the community in the field of education and literacy in India. The Summit awards ceremony was held as an online experience this year, in keeping with the global lockdown. 

Armene Modi is the founder of ‘Ashta No Kai’, a non-profit organization which educates and empowers rural women and girls across ten villages in Pune District in the state of Maharashtra, India. Since 1998, Armene’s remarkable efforts towards emboldening rural women in India have helped improve the educational outcomes of hundreds of adolescent girls. 

“In the firm belief that issues of poverty and illiteracy are not the problems of just the poor and marginalized alone, but universal issues that concern us all,” said Armene Modi, the 2020 Albert Schweitzer Medallist. 

Commending Armene’s efforts and commitment, Andrew Kay, CEO of the World Literacy Foundation, said that this award celebrated twenty-two years of Armene Modi’s dedicated and priceless contributions in the field of education in rural India. 

The award is named after Albert Schweitzer, the famous Austrian who came to Oxford University in 1922, and presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Literature through their intellectual work in writing and research. 

With illiteracy affecting nearly 770 million people in the world today, it is a global crisis, and the World Literacy Foundation strives to ensure that every young individual, regardless of geographic location, has the opportunity to acquire literacy and reading skills to reach their full potential, succeed at school and beyond. The WLF works to provide free access to quality education materials and innovative solutions that target wide-scale illiteracy. The online World Literacy Summit brings together leaders from 85 countries representing over two-thirds of the world’s population, and all with a single focus – advocating, championing and educating on the vital importance of improving literacy levels across the globe.