UNESCO

On May 16 2007 it was announced that the year 2008 was to be the international year of languages. Their slogan is Languages Matter. UNESCO has put up a list of projects to promote this theme. To help with endangered languages they have created dictionaries and encyclopedias to document as much of these languages in case they are lost. To promote awareness they have created holidays like Mother Language Day that is held on February 21. At the Prudue University they had the regional languages come and perform to represent the importance that a language is to a unique culture. A program to help Nigerian language protection continues well into the next year. They create institutions to teach the language as well as hold Nigerian creative writing contests for encouragement.