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A United Nations agency estimates that 516 million of world's women cannot read and write. The UN Education, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, says programs are needed to illiterate women learn although they are past school age. make up two-thirds of all illiterate adults. The majority these women live in West Africa. Many girls in area never go to school. But in Liberia, a education program is giving women in their 30s, 40s 50s another chance to learn to read and write. Rose heads UNESCO's worldwide monitoring report on Education for . She says being illiterate causes huge problems in daily . She notes situations like not being able to read on a medicine bottle or the number on a . Ms. Rose says illiteracy affects not only the women also their families, because women are often the main of children. She says, when women are illiterate, they less likely to use health services. Some countries, like , have improved women's literacy rates through government efforts. They more girls in primary school and community programs about importance of education. But there are still many nations less than one in four women can read and . They include Niger, Benin, Mali and Burkina Faso. Ms. says these countries need literacy programs that target women. , for example, has launched a second-chance literacy campaign to women. Liberia's Ministry of Education says 5,000 women currently in adult literacy programs across the country. For VOA English, I'm Alex Villarreal.