It's Never too Late! 100 Year Old Brazilian Back to School
Isolina Campos has set out to prove it's never too late to learn to read and write.
Campos turned 100 on May 25, and decided to become an example to others by attending class in Londrina, a city in southern Brazil.
Although she started to learn to read and write in 1998, poor health forced her to quit school.
Now she's back to studying at night "so I don't stay at home with nothing to do," she told reporters.
"I don't like to remain inactive... and I'd like to be an example to those who study," said Campos, who lives in a country where more than 14 million people, or around 7.4 percent of the population, remain illiterate.
As a young girl, Campos and her brothers made "rapadura," the local name for artisanal sugar, from sugar cane cut by her father.
The director of the school, Regina Pierotti, told the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper that Campos was not a shrinking violet in class.
"She always wants to know the meaning of this or that letter," Pierotti said. Campos never misses class, the last activity of the day for her, unless she is very sick, Pierotti added.
Source: Agence France Presse
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