Usha Chaumar was singled out for her amazing accomplishments: She can read and write now and is no longer doing the dirtiest of work.

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The girl locked out of the school house or attacked because she had the audacity to want to learn to read or write, she's counting on you.

WHITEHOUSE: THE WHITE HOUSE

And she learned to read and write and sew, and today Marie is back home, working toward a new future.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting | The White House

She could neither read nor write, had never been to school, never been to a hospital or a clinic or a dentist, had never had a new dress or owned a pair of shoes, had gone to bed hungry on more nights than she could remember, and, like millions of other black South Africans, she had learned to settle for what was there and to expect nothing more.

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She was provided a folding table that served as a desk, where she could sit and read, write and eat.

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Though it was not much of a school, it was still a school, and she learned to read and to write and to count.

NPR: One Boy's Heroism in the Face of AIDS

In 1956, Phillips was new to the San Francisco area when she called the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle to tell him she could write a better advice column than the one she had just read, her syndicate Universal Uclick said.

BBC: 'Dear Abby' author Pauline Friedman Phillips dies at 94

"Those eyes, that smile, " Nancy says, glad to learn that Noor can read and write and that she appears to be loved by her family.

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