Philip Morris donates $25,000 to Moroccan association

Major U.S. tobacco firm Philip Morris has donated$25,000 to Morocco's "Ribat Al Fath" socio-cultural association for its noteworthy actions against illiteracy among adult women.

The grant will back the association's programs dealing with reproductive health, mother-child medicare and awareness campaigns.

In 1990, The association set up an ambitious illiteracy program which allowed some 1,718 adult women to learn how to write and read, against just 100 women in 1991.

The current Moroccan socialist-led government has pledged to lower the illiteracy rate from 55 percent to 25 percent over the next 15 years.

A recent survey conducted by the Moroccan National Council of Youth and Future showed that about half of the 28-million strong Moroccan population are illiterate.

The illiteracy rate is higher in rural areas where it stands at 63 percent while in cities 31 percent of the population is illiterate. This percentage reaches an alarming rate among rural women.